In Hollywood, nothing ever truly ends. If a beloved film franchise makes a big deal of taking a final bow and closing out an iconic story, one can reasonably assume that within five to 10 years, it will be back with a recycled story and fresh faces to rake in some dough for the studio. Even if each new film does worse and worse, both financially and with fans of the original property, the studio heads will continue to funnel more trash down our throats each year because they know that we are hooked and will see the movie even if it’s awful.
“Terminator,” “Predator,” “Ghostbusters,” “Jaws” and “Alien” are all franchises spawned between the 1970s and 1980s that overstayed their welcome immensely. Some even had failing reboots released within the past few years. Now, film fans can add “Indiana Jones” to the ever-growing list of never-ending film franchises that diminish the originality and artistic spark of the predecessors with each subsequent cash grab.
While the original “Indiana Jones” trilogy remains both critically acclaimed and beloved by fans to this day, the fourth film in the series, “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” is widely considered to be one of the weakest blockbuster films of all time, permanently staining the classic franchise. No one will ever forget the infamous “Nuking the fridge” scene or the God-awful “Shia Labeouf swinging with monkeys” sequence.
However, despite all the criticism of the most recent Indy film, Harrison Ford (“The Call of the Wild”) is still excited about doing another one. It seems that Ford would tarnish his legacy as the iconic adventurer further, rather than ever appear as smuggler Han Solo in another “Star Wars” film. Ford has always had an affinity for Indy and that may be the main reason why a sequel was even green-lit in the first place. Ford must have used all of his popularity garnered from “The Force Awakens” to convince Lucasfilm to move ahead with the film, because why else would anyone green light a 77-year-old Indiana Jones jumping around and fighting bad guys?
In “Kingdom if the Crystal Skull,” Ford was 65 and could barely sell all the swinging and whipping Indy was doing. But now? Twelve years later? This will feel like Liam Neeson in “Taken 3,” when he could no longer sell the action delivered in the original film so the filmmakers had to work around him with “clever” editing and stunt doubles.
Apart from Ford’s age, it is now being reported that director Steven Spielberg (“Ready Player One”) has left the project, and James Mangold (“Ford v. Ferrari”) is in talks to take over. While Mangold is an acclaimed director in his own right, redefining the comic book genre with the Oscar-nominated “Logan,” it truly speaks volumes that the original director who has helmed every “Indiana Jones” film to date, even “Crystal Skull,” has decided to walk away. Perhaps Spielberg was not fond of the script or the direction the project was heading in. This is all very reminiscent of the recent “Lizzie Mcguire” controversy, where original series creator, Terri Minsky (“Andi Mack”), who was also signed up to helm the upcoming reboot for Disney+, left due to the dreaded creative differences. Now Hilary Duff (“Younger”) is begging Disney to move the show to Hulu so it can go beyond just a PG rating.
Overall, this entire situation feels like Ford against the world, just trying to get another Indy film made, while absolutely no one wants it. Perhaps Ford is taking a page from Sylvester Stallone’s (“Rambo: Last Blood”) book, where he went back to his two iconic characters, Rocky and Rambo, which were both suffering from failed previous entries, “Rocky V” and “Rambo III,” and brought them back to prominence while also sending off his characters in a classy and poetic way. In “Rocky Balboa,” the Italian Stallion fought his last fight, and in “Rambo,” John Rambo finally went home. If this is what Ford is attempting to do with Indy, having him go on his last adventure, his swan song, then perhaps this could work. With Mangold directing, who previously sent beloved character Wolverine off with an emotionally stirring finale in “Logan,” “Indiana Jones 5” could work, but it has to be different.
The filmmakers and Ford need to realize that Ford is not 30 years old anymore, Indy cannot do what he used to do, and audiences will see through any stunt double or CGI-face lift in a second. What they need to do is treat it as his final bow, his goodbye, but with Spielberg leaving, perhaps that isn’t what they’re doing at all. So, get ready for “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Part 2.”
Image from MovieClips via YouTube
