The Indy 4 Trailer: The Harder Questions - One Week Later
by Tom Burns

DEEPER INVESTIGATION - THE UGLY:

Getting to the CGI stupidness we've been alluding to... this really burns our hash. Thanks to the always-sound judgment of the MPAA - you know, the agency that allows Eli Roth to castrate a man on-screen and give it an R-rating, but if you feature sex or nudity (even in a non-exploitative context), they'll probably give you a NC-17 - digital "adjustments" had to be made to the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull trailer before it was realized in the United States.

You can get a nice breakdown of the controversy from Moriarty at Ain't-it-Cool-News or Hollywood Elsewhere, but, essentially, to comply with MPAA policies, Lucasfilm allegedly had to digitally alter any scene where a gun is pointing directly at a person. (The US also got a big frame-filling American flag that was left out of international versions of the trailer.) So if you notice that Indy's shirt pocket or Ray Winstone's pants look bizarrely CGI-ed, that's why.

The whole thing would be funny, if it wasn't so insulting. The Indiana Jones movies are some of the most engaging, well-crafted pieces of mass-market entertainment in Hollywood history. It's ridiculous that, given the series' sterling reputation, the MPAA is possibly wasting time and money worrying about whether four Army rifles are pointing too close to Indy's chest. Law & Order airs 15 times of day, full of rape and autopsies... Completely and totally ridiculous.

OUR VERDICT:

Overall... we liked the trailer. We're having a hard time with the opening and we're still struggling to understand the story - although, can anyone really explain the Sankara Stone elements in 10 words or less? - but Indy looked damn good and hearing that old John Williams score totally made our hearts skip a beat. Let's all hope that Kingdom of the Crystal Skull continues to reflect the best of the Indiana Jones legacy and that, in the future, the MPAA can give everyone a break that makes logical sense.

Indiana Jones 4 features on The Deadbolt:

Fan Flock to New Indiana Jones Trailer
Indiana Jones 4: The Scripts That Weren't
Indy 4 Dossier: What We Know to Date
2008 Box Office: The Year of Paramount?