INDIANA JONES & THE DIAL OF DESTINY To Rival "John Carter" As Disney's Biggest Bomb

[AndyDursin]

Waiting for the Doomcock update.

[Monterey Jack]

If WB scrapped Batgirl because it "Didn't fit their long-term plans" (aka "It sucked"), it would behoove Disney to follow suit with Indy 5, because this sounds INFURIATING. Even if they shoot yet another ending (which would apparently be the SEVENTH to date), I don't think there's any way to salvage this. They killed Star Wars, do we need to see the same happen to Doctor Jones?

[AndyDursin]

The film is going to be a bust. Bury it on Disney+ agreed

[Monterey Jack]

How Kathleen Kennedy still has a job mystifies me, aside from the "We'll look sexist if we fire her" angle. Not even women want to see Indiana Jones literally erased from existence so a female character can take up his hat and whip. You want a "female Indiana Jones"? MAKE A NEW ONE. Hell, Lara Croft is right there, just make another Tomb Raider movie (a good one, this time). Same thing with a black Captain America, which is a mantle that Falcon deliberately turned down at the end of Endgame (both out of respect for his friend Steve Rogers and not wanting to be reduced to the "black version" of an existing superhero), yet by the end of his D+ miniseries, he was given a canned speech about being "here to stay", and calling out the "trolls" who would resist the idea, aka "White Males". Do black people WANT a black Captain America? Have no black people EVER watched movies with white protagonists? It's insulting.

[AndyDursin]

I just love the fact they threw Spielberg and Lucas out into the trash like they could make their own movie so easily and here it is, making Steven look brilliant for turning it down.

Shame on Ford for going through with it, he should've said no.

[Monterey Jack]

Shame on Ford for going through with it, he should've said no.

Like I said before, it's not like he needs the money at this point in his life. Like Jack Nicholson said in Chinatown, "I don't get it, I mean...how much better can you eat?"

As for Spielberg, he tried his best to "Get the band back together again" with Crystal Skull, but he, Ford and Lucas inherited a lousy screenplay (no wonder, as the movie was produced during the 2008 writer's strike. The same year's Quantum Of Solace was similarly scarred and obviously patched-together on the fly) and the over reliance on cheap, greenscreen footage and CGI never once made this feel like the authentic travelogues of previous Indy adventures, playing like 75% of it took place on sound stages. The only bit that really harkened back to the OT was the well-done motorcycle chase through the campus, because it was the only bit of practical stunt work in actual locations in the whole damn thing. And that was with the original director/producer/actor team! With only Ford left, it's no wonder this is a tripod that can no longer stand under its own power, getting propped up by nostalgia from an aging fanbase who sure as sh!t don't want to see their childhood hero looking enfeebled and replaced by a younger, female version, all to appease humorless, purple-haired Millennials who have probably never watched the original films (or, if they have, have chided them for being "Problematic" ). Once Disney kills off the second Lucasfilm franchise in a row, what's left? The D+ Willow series is certainly not going to shoulder the load. Howard The Duck: The Series? Radioland Murders: A New Generation?

[AndyDursin]

Ford getting showered with Disney paychecks for this crap and whatever Marvel part he signed up for, in the twilight of his career, is just sad evidence of the declining state of pop culture in 2022 also.

I mean not only does he NOT need the money, but he already killed off Han Solo. He's going to go 2 for 2 for killing off beloved cinematic characters?

I also think the fan base is the same older crowd as Star Wars if not more so. They're going to take to this movie even less than they might think, especially coming off the general travesty of Kennedys Star Wars sequel trilogy. The distrust between the fans and Disney is already there and Indy has a smaller appeal comparatively than the Star Wars brand also. More reason to bury this dud instead of it turning into another Lightyear.

[Eric W.]

I didn't want this to be made. I want it to be buried. Top Gun Maverick is a fluke and an anomaly in terms of making after the fact/way too-late sequels. This isn't going to be another Top Gun Maverick and we all know it. Enough.

[AndyDursin]

That's the rub. Audiences aren't going to "just go to the movies" anymore. Either they have a reason to go out and see Top Gun or they're staying home. We are seeing this in the feast/mostly famine box office that's out there.

A movie like Top Gun can bring them back, but I can guarantee like anyone else Indiana Jones is not going to provide that same kind of experience. Nor will any movie produced by Disney.

[Paul MacLean]

Top Gun Maverick is a fluke and an anomaly in terms of making after the fact/way too-late sequels. This isn't going to be another Top Gun Maverick and we all know it. Enough.

Sadly, I can see Top Gun: Maverick's success spawning more "80s sequels".

Will we be seeing Son of Scarface, Amadeus II: Salieri's Revenge or Return of the Breakfast Club (featuring six "up-and-coming" young stars, with cameos by Sheedy, Estevez, etc. as their parents)?

[Monterey Jack]

Ford getting showered with Disney paychecks for this crap and whatever Marvel part he signed up for, in the twilight of his career, is just sad evidence of the declining state of pop culture in 2022 also.

Ford replacing the late WIlliam Hurt in the MCU was especially depressing. He's EIGHTY YEARS OLD, and yoking himself to another franchise? One that will probably make him sign off on his likeness so we can get a creepy, CGI deepfake of him for years after his death?

[AndyDursin]

Sounds to me like this movie is done because there's just no way to fix it. They have already conducted reshoots and toyed with all those endings already. It must structurally suck, like a bad Disney+ episode. Indy lives or dies, it's not going to matter because the movie is a disaster plot wise and in overall execution, which we knew from the start because it sounded flipping awful. The only way forward for them beyond throwing it away is releasing the version that sucks the least at this point.

I mean can't Disney afford to start over with a series they claim is this important to the fans? Morgan Creek threw away Schraders EXORCIST prequel and started over. Warner shelved BATGIRL. I realize this has a far bigger budget but if anyone can afford it it's Disney. And if the care about the Indiana Jones brand at all, they should take the upmost care with it.

Again good on Spielberg for saying no to the check Disney threw at him. At least someone had the good sense to bow out before adding to the damage Crystal Skull had already inflicted.

[Monterey Jack]

I mean can't Disney afford to start over with a series they claim is this important to the fans? Morgan Creek threw away Schraders EXORCIST prequel and started over. Warner shelved BATGIRL. I realize this has a far bigger budget but if anyone can afford it it's Disney. And if the care about the Indiana Jones brand at all, they should take the upmost care with it.

We may see a rash of these as Hollywood purges itself of The Woke over the next five or so years. Batgirl was thrown away by WB because they claimed it "Didn't fit the long-term plans" of the DCU, which, in my mind, reads, "We see the writing on the wall, and fans will complain that Batgirl isn't white or red-haired, and we can see the Woke Outrage era has a finite lifespan, so we're just gonna wait it out". Yeah, there will be grousing and cries of "RACISM!!!" over canning a movie with a black lead subbed for a character who has been canonically white for over sixty years' worth of comics and related media, but not for much longer, as people are beginning to speak with their wallets in rejecting these things. Lightyear tanking was an encouraging sign, a movie whose social media ad campaign mostly revolved around a "groundbreaking" same-sex peck on the cheek, and how Pixar was being "brave" and "inclusive" for jamming it in there, when what people really wanted was an outer space adventure full of excitement and humor, not a dreary, defeatist tale of Buzz and company stranded on a desolate, visually boring rock for decades (so much for going "To Infinity, and beyond!" ). Meanwhile, Universal sat on Minions 2 for two years to save their investment as Covid receded, and made over $900 million, because it gave kids and family audiences what they wanted...silly voices, fart jokes, and a blissful lack of anything that was "Good for you". All it was, was FUN, and that's what we need to get back to in our mainstream entertainments, not hijacking them to spew the sociopolitical leanings of the studios and filmmakers out into a crowd who just wants to be entertained.

[AndyDursin]

Batgirl apparently was just crap. And it was also designed as a premium HBO Max movie. They need to hit the reset button on all of that and it's not an expensive enough movie that was going to be a money loser anyway that they can afford to do it.

The Flash poses a bigger issue because it was more expensive AND its apparently good so they have a different problem with Miller being a nutcase.

[Eric W.]

Sadly, I can see Top Gun: Maverick's success spawning more "80s sequels".

Will we be seeing Son of Scarface, Amadeus II: Salieri's Revenge or Return of the Breakfast Club (featuring six "up-and-coming" young stars, with cameos by Sheedy, Estevez, etc. as their parents)?

I dread the likes of it.