Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: The Spence Edit

Honestly, not nearly as bad as anybody remembers it. With the weight of lofty expectations, the fourth one was a disappointment, but I was impressed at how kind time has been to this film.

There’s still a lot of traditional Indy in this film, elements like villains, fun bickering, the pulp-like action that still uses a lot of practical effects (very welcome in a day where EVERYTHING is CGI), the quips, and a wonderful sense of awe, wonder, and pacing.

Admittedly, this version, from seasoned faneditor Spence, did cut out a solid 11 minutes to help with the pace and remove some of the most silly egregious elements.

Spence doesn’t try to rectify the story as such, an impossible task since it’s the core of the film, but he does make surgical cuts and changes to keep the film feel like more of a true sequel.

Spence is a master at the craft, 99% of the edits are seamless, you can hardly tell the changes. The film feels faster and there’s a true sense of urgency throughout like a real Indy sequel.

The fanedit allows the film’s positive qualities to stand out more, the action is a really fun romp and the two chase setpieces end up being wonderful (the one opening with the warehouse and late 2nd act jeep chase in the jungle), the banter and relationship between Marion and Indy is wonderful as well. And even though a lot of people hate Shia’s performance, there’s a lot of fun in seeing Indy in the father role a direct correlation and flipping of roles to the Last Crusade, which is a lot of fun here. If you still hate Shia’s performance, that’s on you. I got a kick out of it this time around with the role reversal. It’s fun seeing allusions not only to previous Indy films but also to Lucas’s American Graffitti.

You can’t fix the movie entirely, the nuking of the fridge will always be there (even if it's much much better this time around), the ending will always be the ending, and the plot will always be about aliens and sci-fi elements. What Spence does do is he cleans enhances the positives and numbs the negatives as much as he can and it's truly a revelation that this is so good. This version is the go to version of the film here forth and is actually worth rewatching.

Film Rating: 2
Fanedit Rating: 3

I remember enjoying the original and not understanding what the negativity was all about, but with that being said, this edit seamlessly improves on what I believe was already a fun movie by improving the pacing and losing some of the humor that just didn't land. I highly recommend, and it will definitely be my go-to version for future viewings!

Spence does it again! Turning a mediocre mess of a film into a solid flick. His edits are always technically well done and his improvements to the plot here make the viewing experience worthwhile. This film is now a little less silly, a little more focused, and a lot more enjoyable. Great work!

I've seen a lot of Indy 4 cuts. Sometimes I have a lot to say, but other times the edit does what it needs to and functions too smoothly to have much to say. Which at the end of the day is the minimum that every edit should reach.

My thoughts:

- The opening Paramount/mountain fade shot is done pretty well. But it does linger a long enough for me to wonder why I'm looking at it. I can see little things floating around in the open air around the mountain which I think is a nicer touch than just still image of the sky or backdrop.

- You kept the rocket sled gofers! Noooo!
- The timing of Indy's line delivery of "knife to a gun fight" is so much better.
- Cutting Oxley dancing around the Soviet jungle campfire. Why? I fail to see how this really achieves anything aside from shaving a few seconds off the run time. Not really condemning this choice, I just don't see what it contributes.
- Lots of little nips and tucks through out the rest of the film were appropriate.

Overall, this was a pretty conservative, light touch, edit. Better than the original cut for sure. For me personally though I would have preferred a heavier hand in the edit room but this does the job quite well and should be watched over the theatrical cut.

Well, what can I say? THIS is the Best Cinematic that he ever did, the audio, visual, the quality, everything, were looking like the Indiana Jones trillogy, really, well done, I really recommend this edit.