I swear I must be the only person who thoroughly enjoyed The Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls and had no problem with Ford's age. I agree Mutt was annoying but it wasn't a deal breaker for me.
I loved it, until I read its original script, City of the Gods. It would have raised the movie to Raider's equal, IMO. Mutt wasn't great, and I didn't love the jungle vine scene, but it hit most of the Indy notes for me; the whole scene in the school and 50s diner were awesome, and I had no problem with the aliens.... contrasting 30s and 50s brings the sci fi into things culturally, and by then, the new age alien gods were starting to replace the religious imagery in some circles. Indy IV taps into that perfectly. At the end of the day, does it matter if they are from space, another dimension, or some otherwordly religious realm?
We have no idea what Disney's post-Ford plans for the character are; they may well not even have any firm ones as yet. Pratt will be 40 when Indy 5 comes out; maybe they'll want to do a 20-something Indy story for their first outing with a new actor. I would.
I thought KotCS was ok. I wasn't bothered by Ford's age at all, I didn't even notice it. On the other hand, Mutt really irritated me, and some of the stupider scenes and terrible CG (Mutt swinging with monkeys being an example of both) were pretty bad. So it wasn't great, but I'll rewatch it from time to time. I personally like it a lot more then Temple of Doom, which I consider the only outright bad Indy movie (give me Mutt over Willie and Shortround any day ).
I like it too. I don't know if it's quite at the level of the first three, but it's still a fun adventure movie. I know I've said this before, but my ideal would still to keep Ford as Indy but have him play mentor to a younger character. Maybe this time they could go for a daughter with somebody like Scarlett Johansson (not necessarily saying I want her as the lead, she was just the first younger actress I could think of who does a lot of action movies)who has followed in his footsteps. This way we could still get a new, young Indy, but don't have to deal with Mutt. They could go really meta with it and have it turn out he had to go into hiding, changed his name to Croft, and had a daughter named Lara.
Regardless of the character, I doubt Mutt will make an appearance (at least as we know it). Shia LaBeouf has turned bat-shit crazy and is even more toxic than Lindsay Lohan right now. No film production wants an actor that erratic who could detract from the movie (or make the story about himself instead of his role).
Which is why I said bring in a daughter instead. That way we could get Indy and his kid, but we don't have to get complaints about why they didn't bring Mutt back, or having to recast the character.
Temple of Doom wasn't exactly peaches and cream; in most respects, Crystal Skull just established an even-numbered curse pattern. Even Last Crusade has some problems in retreading ground of Raiders, though, in my view, it manages to surpass the original in other ways. Crystal Skull is definitely the worst of the four so far, but to rail against it like it's an anomaly, I just don't get.
Crystal Skull was too PG, and it plodded in the 3rd act. I think the opening was strong. This could work with a little finesse.
Maybe the movie is just old Indy and Marion, and middle-aged Mutt with his family, going to the movies to see a curious new sci-fi movie called Star Wars on opening night. Disney stealth releases the original cut without anyone realizing it!
All through the movie Mutt casually drops hints of wanting to see a movie with his dad but they keep getting distracted. The final moments of the movie will go like this. Mutt- It's about space dad. Indy- I'll keep my nose to the ground son. We pan up to the theater sign "Now showing: Star Wars" or if they want to do it have the movie set in 1975 for "Jaws" Indy crashes through a movie theater. Theater goers are in shock. Indy- Movie wasn't that great anyways *Get's back on bike*
I actually thought the premise of the movie was great, and got me excited for it before release. The thought of Indy in the 50's with all the area 51 stuff I thought was the perfect thing to do, and I agree, I thought the opening was great, I was really enjoying the film, then two rodents 'comically' appeared in the rocket sled section and I was like, Ok, I can see George Lucas has his paws on this, we'll let that slide. By the time Indy was climbing out of the fridge I was pretty much done with the movie. In my opinion the rest of the film is just utterly dreadful, Shia LeBoeuf swinging through the jungle like Tarzan with poorly rendered CG monkeys that had decided who the bad guys were was just the final insult. I'd watch Temple of Doom a million times over this nonsense.
There was never going to be an Indiana Jones movie without Stephen Spielberg and Harrison Ford. Any claims to the contrary were baseless. We already know that the movie is a continuation of things from where Crystal Skull left off, even though the plot/story are going to be unconnected to that film.
Aliens and Watergate-- that might work. No, that's pretty much how I feel. Mutt became an actor and plays Han Solo. Indy V is therefore a 70s Horror movie.