I’m willing to bet that we — the entire internet — can agree that the worst Indiana Jones film thus far is Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. This is most likely due to a number of factors, including rose-colored nostalgia glasses, an atomic bomb-proof fridge, and insta-gymnast Shia LaBeouf. That entire film could have been an oxygen-deprived dream inside Indy’s head as he suffocated in an old-timey fridge like Cherie from Punky Brewster.

Or maybe it’s because Crystal Skull is just a mish-mash of re-done scenes from the other films:

WhoIsPablo put together this piece that juxtaposes shots from the original Indiana Jones films with their similar/identical counterparts from the 2008 film.

The cut of Indiana Jones films side-by-side brings to light what might be a tangible reason the film became the worst rated in the franchise — we were spoon fed familiar things from the first films and we didn’t even realize it. Crystal Skull may have been better if it were done soon after The Last Crusade, however, with so much time between films, the use of similar shots comes across as — yikes, I’m criticizing Spielberg here — a bit pandering and lazy.

Not to say a franchise like this shouldn’t have the iconic things that made the first films so great, but it didn’t need to be so heavy handed. To film such similar scenes with near identical blocking and even character analogs, it almost seems like Spielberg and co. didn’t trust their audience enough to give them something new.

What do you think of the side by side comparison? Do you think Spielberg was deliberate in the movie he gave us? Or was he phoning it in? Let us know in the comments below!

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HT: TheAwesomer

Image Credit: Paramount/Lucasfilm