00:00.43 kinkella Hello and welcome to the pseudo archeology podcast episode 115 I'm your host Dr Andrew King Kella and tonight we revisit the fan non favorite Indiana Jones and the kingdom. Of the crystal skull. So what are we doing looking at Indiana Jones for the least of the Indiana Jones franchise well I'll tell you why we're looking at this because Indiana Jones 5 is coming out June Thirtieth isn't that crazy. I'm recording this what April Twenty third or so so we're looking at two months man and what is called Indiana Jones and the dial of destiny will be upon us now this is a smorgas Borg Of Pseudo Archeology Fun these and I'm not here to. Taught poorly about Indiana Jones I am not an archeologist who hates Indiana Jones I Love Indiana Jones you guys I'm sure you've heard me say this other times I totally dig Indiana Jones um I'm happy that we as a discipline have Harrison Ford as our poster child. That's. 01:19.98 kinkella Just great. What what can be bad about that and I think we all get yes yes yes that Indiana Jones is not a real archeologist as we are today and that's okay because he's fun I want to go see an Indiana Jones movie except for Indiana Jones for we'll get to that in a minute but. Indiana Jones 5 though the dial of destiny the dial of destiny I'm guessing that that has to do with the antikythera device which we've gone over in the show in the past I'm I'm sort of holding my breath on that when I'm I'm hoping that's where they draw from I don't mind. If Indiana Jones draws from a little pseudo archeology but what I do care about is that the movie is well made right? And as we go through Indiana Jones for I want to point out how I think. The movie actually wasn't made very well and why would you bother listening to me talk about movies. Well I'll tell you why I was a double major in archeology and film. That's right I have a full film major a full b a in film. And I can tell you that in my experience actually the film degree was more difficult than the archeology degree as an undergraduate some of those film classes. You guys were were tough and ah so I am you know what. 02:53.51 kinkella I'm going to tell you I am proud of my film degree and when I was ah getting my degree I did the stuff like in archeology some of us went on real excavations and some of us didn't in the movie side of things. Some people. Made movies and some didn't I was one who did make a student movie I helped on several student movies and we're talking Sixteen Millimeter film times I took screenwriting classes and all that kind of good stuff and I really did enjoy that aspect of of my. College learning experience. Also I realized that I happened to be a guest recently on the podcast. The screens of the stone age with ah Joshua Lindel and Dr Kimberly ah plump and those guys were great in. That podcast we broke down the movie twenty twelve right the disaster movie Twenty twelve the one with John Cusack in it and doing that at first it was really fun I really enjoyed being a part of their podcast and I'll I'll link to it below but it reminded me. A bit about my film days and I started to think about that a little bit and I think having recently seen one of the trailers for Indiana Jones 5 I was like hey maybe it's worth it. You know to to look back where was Indiana Jones when we last left him you know so I thought. 04:23.98 kinkella That I could use this episode to do a deep dive into Indiana Jones in the kingdom of the crystal skull and I'd really like to kind of go through it and analyze it and sure we'll point out the pseudo archeology and the background to the pseudo archeology that's used in Indiana Jones for because there's a lot of it. But I think of more importance will point out where the movie falls short and I think partially because I was a film major I always want movies to succeed you guys I I don't like people who are critics just to be critics. You know I always root for movies to succeed. It takes a lot of money and hard work to make a movie and honestly it takes just as much money and hard work to make a crappy movie as it does to make a good movie. So even though I have quite a few negative things to say about Indiana John's 4 realize behind the scenes I'm always rooting for it and I will point out things that I think were successful as we go through this I think I'll talk about it in the classic. Ah. 05:36.58 kinkella 3 act fashion where in the first act we're sort of intro to the cast of characters. We're intro to the hero. We kind of get an idea for what's up. Um, and then act 2 is where we. Meet other allies and enemies. We have a bunch of trials. There's a bunch of complications. That's what takes up most of the movie act 1 is usually the first half an hour even a little shorter first twenty minutes in the moment where you're like oh I see where this movie's going. That's usually the end of act 1 right? where they almost announce like oh. We're gonna go on this voyage you go. Okay, then act 2 is most of the movie and then act 3 is the end act 3 is the resolution act 3 is when you're like okay I know how they're gonna end this or I know what they have to do in order to end this s act 3 and act 3 is usually pretty short too. It's like the last twenty minutes so mostly were in act two as we look at this, you'll see that Indiana Jones four can be a little tough to follow in terms of the act structure. It's pretty close but I find that when the switch between act one and act 2 or act 2 and act 3 kind of soft. That's the indication of a movie that's wanting you know that might not be that great to compare this to a movie that does do it. Great. We can think of star wars. 07:07.15 kinkella Right? Where act one of star wars is largely on tattooing we meet Luke Skywalker and ob one can no be you know act 1 famously ends when lu is like there's nothing for me here now. I want to become a jedi like my father right right? after he sees Uncle Owelan and Aunt Beru burned to death and. Now we know we're off, we're like okay this story is about this young farmer Luke Skywalker and he's going to learn. He's going to like go towards becoming a jedi and the trials and tribulations that they go with that He's gonna fight the empire so act 2 is about all that right act we meet Han Solo we're in the cantina and then we. Jet off ultimately coming to the death star. We fight our way through the death star and then act 3 of course is when we have a counterattack against the death star in the x wings right? and it follows so well with a great movie like star wars you can see the act breaks. And every scene has a reason to be there what we'll see in Indiana Jones four is a lot of scenes have no reason to be there except to sell amusement park rides right? But of course. Indiana Jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull is not terrible. It's nowhere near the worst movie of all time which everyone knows is star wars the phantom menace. 08:38.13 kinkella Now when I watched Indiana Jones in the kingdom of the crystal skull in the theater back in 2008? Um I was not destroyed like my inner child was not brutally murdered like it was while watching the phantom menace but. It gave me an overall sinking feeling. You know what? I mean as the minutes ticked away and as I was watching I was like oh no, you know and again not terrible. But I do feel it could have been so much better. So when we return an act by act breakdown of Indiana Jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull.