Wired has a story on the de-aging, and I saw the film yesterday.
I didn’t at all love the film, though it is better than the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The opening 25 minutes, with Harrison Ford de-aged, while exciting was just too digital. The first 3 films have effects, but so much is with actors that this just made it look like a video game.
And to me the de-aged face often looked like it was at a different frame rate. To me it looked like maybe they liked the clarity of the face so much, that they didn’t motion blur it to fit in the shot? That would account for the odd stutter that made it look like it was at an off frame rate. Also the face didn’t seem to perfectly match the dialogue.
It just didn’t get there for me, and threw me out of the film, as I was watching the effect instead of the sequence.
SOME SPOILERS AHEAD…
Of course the story really lost it for me. I am not sure if there was more to it that they cut out, or it was just badly written.
I didn’t buy the CIA letting an Ex Nazi scientist have NAZI guards with him that murdered innocent Americans, and felt it needed more explanation. I get the CIA with the Ex Nazi as he was basically Verner Von Braun, but with Nazi Guards, really? Allowed to run around New York with guns?
Then when they take the Nazi’s boat and the Nazi’s see they are going west not east, they still manage to find them on the first try? Really? How about an explanation. Why have the whole clue hidden in the tablet if the Nazi’s don’t in fact need it.
Also the tomb raiding was lame. It was too short, and had inconsistencies (like the bridge getting broken and then being fixed 10 minutes later). And there was so little to figure out, just stick some rocks in water and find a tunnel. And the digital bugs being a throwback to Temple of Doom, were useless, made no sense and didn’t look very good.
Now people complained about the ending, but I didn’t mind that. All the films have been rather magical at their conclusions and I didn’t expect this to be any different. And I loved seeing the seige (though why didn’t the plane pull up sooner?).
And the action scene in the middle on the Jeep Jeep Motorcycles was great, and looked really good.
It was good to see Indiana Jones again, but not great. Letting the films go out with a wimper vs the thud of the Kingdom of the Crystal Skill.