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

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!

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.

I loved this edit. It solved all issues i had with the original move. It was faster paced and the dumb gags that dragged on the movie were way cut back. This really felt like a classic Indiana Jones film. The edits were seamless, I couldn't even tell. it goes to show both how good an editor Spence is and how unnecessary the removed stuff was.

First, my opinion of the movie in terms of an Indiana Jones fan:
I had high hopes this edit would salvage the situation, but it didn't - meanwhile, I think my expectations were simply too high.
Now don't get me wrong, I cannot and will not blame "Spence" for that!
But "Kingdom Of The Crystall Skull" just is not what I wanted it to be (namely a new adventure with Indy), it's more like visiting old friends. The movie takes not enough risks (even though there's loads of potential) to expand its universe or characters, but repeats old tricks or blinks eyes to the past. That's all nice, but "nice" is not "great". I think this kind of (supposed) satisfying of target audiences is the only thing George Lucas is able to do these days (or since the mid 90ties)...
Now my opinion on the technical side of things:
That all put aside, I definitely think the Spence edit is still an improvement over the original because it keeps in the movie's strenghts, has a good pace and doesn't bore as much as the original movie. The cuts are flawless, the story and the characters are all intact, and there was no moment I thought "now THERE was something wrong now!" - congrats, Spence!