Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull: The Race With The Devil Cut

Let me just state that I have seen so many cuts of this film that its hard to differentiate them after a while.

- That said I watched this with the Race with the Devil musical cue. The song wasn't any better or worse than the original Elvis song but I did find that when the American teens get the Soviet driver to race them, the song's solo should have been matched up for this moment. Other than being a little quiet, it wasn't bad.

- For the most part edits were invisible and a lot of it worked well. Hence I really don't have much to really praise or deride. You cut out the Roswell body in the tent and you can't even notice. Which is how it should be. I think its removal helps reduce confusion at all the alien's being superfluous distant cousins and etc. And its removal was invisible.

- The color regrade made every thing look like it was filmed entirely under an overcast sky. Which I liked. Wouldn't really call it the best visual style as it was a little dark at times, but otherwise looked good and was consistent.

- Right before the jungle chase, I like how you used Mutt's "you're not my father" bit and how you repurposed his confused look of hearing news of his actual father, and how you repurposed that shot as a son's concern as he watches his mother get gagged. Although the editing to cover up Indy's "they weren't you honey" ended up not having a lot of room to breathe.

- Spalko's close up reaction as her jeep flies through the air before running over Indy and the gang's vehicle (at the beginning of the big damn ants scene) kept her floating in the air a little too much for my taste. There were a few moments in this scene where the sound fx dropped out as well.

- Something that bothered me as well, was that Indy reiterates how Oxley says "three times it drops" but then they clearly only "drop" twice.

- I like cutting what you did at the bottom of the pyramid stairwell after they run down the receding stone steps, but Mutt states that he dropped and lost the skull. Then they start looking for it. But then you just cut to the next scene.

- I noticed that you kept the temple natives living within the stone walls. A neutral choice in my opinion. But you kind of cut away quickly in some attempt to downplay this narrative choice. Almost in an attempt to please those who hate this idea and those who find it bearable. Which I don't think really works. It's one or the other in my book, as finding a middle ground just makes it weird/unnecessary.

- The ending atop the pyramid also was a little choppy.

Conclusion: was it better than the theatrical cut? Yes. Would I recommend this to others or rewatch it again? Yes. It's not perfect but it's worth watching.

I still remember going to see Kingdom of the Crystal Skull back in the theaters in 2008. My girlfriend at the time had never seen an Indy movie so we watched the first three in anticipation. The day finally arrived and we went to the theater. During the show, I was incredibly let down and honestly embarrassed that I made my gf watch the others. She tried to fake liking it for my sake because she knew how excited I was to see it. That was the only time I saw the movie all the way through.

Fast forward 15 years and we now have The Race with the Devil Cut. Finally, I can say that Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a good movie and I truly enjoy it. This edit makes the film feel like it actually belongs in the same series as the previous three Indy films. The edits are seamless and all of the nonsense the original version of the film came with are now either gone completely or better edited.

I highly highly recommend this edit. DonkeyKonga did a tremendous job!

I’m rating the edit more than the source - I normally don’t care for alien movies. This version was paced much better than the theatrical version. I remember tuning out of the jungle chase sequence - the edit made it very enjoyable. Also the Peruvian Indian fight with all the silly flipping was cut - thank god. Overall it matched the structure of the original 3 much better

Previously the only Indy 4 edit I watched was a rather radical edit called Riddles of the Lost Gods which I very much enjoyed even with some minor changes I would have made to the opening...but much like that edit, this edit also proves that Indy 4 has a great film hiding behind all of the silliness and trimming the fat really shows it. In the case of this edit: Its a far more traditional Indy movie than the RotLG edit, and that's also a good thing. I watched the 3rd revision (I believe) of this edit and aside from a couple of artistic choices that I debated with the editor about (lol, I still believe in no nuke dang it), its almost flawless. I think if a V4 gets put out for this, it will (nuke included) be probably the most perfect cut you're going to see of this film.
Some of the choices made put a real burden on the editor, but it still worked out really well. Its different than RotLG and cuts things and keeps things that the RotLG kept/cut, but the main thing here is BALANCE between the silly and the serious and honestly both cuts proved that the theatrical cut just had way too many indulgences, and cutting a handful of the most egregious ones out makes immediately for a better film. So, keep the nuke cloud my friend, because everything else was so streamlined that it doesn't matter if its there or not.
Bottom line: Excellent cut. You absolutely should watch this.

UPDATE: Changed my scores to 10's across the board now. Just watched the latest edit with a fix to a scene I recommended and this thing is flawless now (well, if you can forgive the nuke that is, lol - its fine.).

I really enjoyed this edit! It had been many years since I last saw this film, as I found the original to be very disappointing. This edit has renewed my enjoyment in this film; it now feels like a 'proper' Indy film! The cuts were seamless, and the audio was really good overall.
I highly recommend this edit for anyone who was disappointed in the original, and wants to see how this film should have been released in the first place!