Shame on you, Spielberg.

While I am gravely dissapointed in both Speilberg and Lucas, Skull is almost entirely Lucas' fault. There had been previous scripts written, none of which Lucas would agree to. Speilberg VERY RELUCTANTLY let Lucas' alien idea slip by. Technically Lucas was at the time a washed up producer who was completely out of touch with the origional franchise, and Speilberg lacked the balls to call him out on how rediculous his ideas were. They're both to blame.

If I had made this turd I would try to shift the blame too...

Although I do admit it would be more "noble" for him to admit his share of the responsibility.

However, at least he hasn't tried to defend it and he is also blaming the same guy who gave us the prequels...
...so yeah *beep* Lucas!

I think the biggest problem I have with Spielberg over Indy 4 isn't that he made it at all, it's that he didn't stick to his guns.

Before they made The Last Crusade, George Lucas had considered making the next Indiana Jones about a haunted castle in Scotland. Spielberg refused. Another time Lucas wanted to make it about a lost valley full of dinosaurs. Spielberg refused. Spielberg ends TLC with them riding off into the sunset, thus ending the trilogy which Lucas decides warrants another sequel. Spielberg refused. Then Indy 4 gets on the table, and Lucas wants to make it about aliens. Spielberg refused. Independence Day comes out, and again Lucas has this original idea to have Indy 4 about a giant UFO (with aliens). Spielberg refuses. Lucas repeatedly tries to make it about aliens. Spielberg refuses. Then Lucas says, "Instead of aliens let's make it about interdimensional aliens who look exactly like aliens," to which Spielberg says "Fine, let's make Indy 4."

I don't get why Spielberg would hold out against so many sh!tty ideas only to agree to it. Not only that, but he was the director, NOT George Lucas. The Indiana Jones movies, like the Prequel Trilogy, were always a GROUP EFFORT. Spielberg and Lucas always had the most say, but there were others involved. Indy 4 was not like the Prequel Trilogy where he had TOTAL CONTROL, in fact I don't know how much control he had at all other than telling people what the story was and using his powers of hypnotism to get it done.

I've read the interviews where Spielberg points out his loyalty to Lucas, and what I want to know is WHAT LOYALTY?! Again, it was always a group effort. Lucas didn't hand him Raiders of the Lost Ark and allow Spielberg to put his name on it, Spielberg didn't owe Lucas anything, it was a group Godd@mned process. They should've argued. They should've discussed. Look at some interviews by Harrison Ford on the filming of the Original Trilogy and the initial mention of aliens in Indy 4, it's clear he was willing to argue with Lucas and apparently had on many occasions.

Spielberg shouldn't have looked at the script and decided "This is what my friend George wants to do, so I'll be a good friend and do it." Argue over nonmagnetic things being attracted to crystal. Argue over nuking the fridge. Argue over Mutt's "Tarzan" scene. Argue over whatever the hell went wrong, don't just film it as is because George came up with it.

While yes, George Lucas is ultimately to blame for creating it, Spielberg deserves a lot of blame for letting it happen. Lucas created Star Wars and helped create Indiana Jones, and for those things I am eternally grateful as a fan of both. But as Lucas got older his ideas took a horrible sideways turn that we were powerless to change, we could only ignore him. Spielberg ignored him plenty of times, and gave in just because.

I'm glad Disney ignored whatever movie ideas Lucas had for the Sequel Trilogy. I would like to read them at some point just to see what they were, but I'm glad Disney and the people like Kathleen Kennedy, Lawrence Kasdan and Michael Arndt had the cajones to politely ignore him as soon as it came time to make a movie. When it comes to Lucas and his more modern "ideas," it's best to just politely ignore him and keep him from getting within range of a camera.


Can't be too careful with all those weirdos running around.

I actually thought Last Crusade was the weakest of the first three.

I agree with your points on this movie.


Hitler! C'mon, I'll buy you a glass of lemonade.

Indeed, Spielberg proved he is an unreliable backstabbing coward, you don't put all the blame on a friend of 40 years. When Raiders was a big hit, he never hinted that all credits belong to George Lucas, he appropriated that success. Indy4 is a mess but all the blame fell on George Lucas although you can be sure that Shia Laboeuf was Spielberg's idea, I don't know his connections but Spielberg pushed the career of that little brat as well as the career of JJ Abrams, that hack. The movie failed not just because of the script and actors, it was an extremely lazy shooting, everything was filmed within studios instead of moving abroad, which made the movie look like a friggin Disney attraction.
For decades Spielberg refused to make the movie for his "friend", yet now that Kathleen Kennedy has taken over Lucasfilm, he immediately signed for Indy5. This guy is a bastard.