INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL REVITALIZED

Introduction:

This is my second fan-edit. After having been (surprisingly) very happy with my first fan-edit (The Last Jedi Reforged) and having got some very positive feedback from it’s viewers (Thank you guys!!!), I took the decision to make a second fan edit. And again it’s a movie which left me very disappointed when I watched it for the first time: 
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
The very positive thing about this movie was without any doubt Harrison Ford. Although he was over 60 years old, he was for the most part still able to represent a tough, funny and likable Indiana Jones.
Shia LaBeouf’s Mutt had it’s flaws, but in the end, I liked him too. The same applies to Karen Allen as Marion Ravenwood.
The majority of the cast did a very good job. Steven Spielberg, the director, did (like always) a good job as well, but in the end, George Lucas’ very poor story about aliens & their UFO, some very stupid ideas (Indy survives an atomic explosion in a fridge), and many other things ruined the movie for me.
So I tried to make a version of the movie that I could watch without throwing my remote control out of the window.
In the end, I’m quite happy with my version of the film. It still has some flaws, but overall I think it’s watchable (it’s still no comparison to the first three movies, so don’t expect too much).

Important notes:

Special thanks go to 15MaF, for the permission to use two scenes from his Indy 4 fan edit. Please take a look at his version of the film, it can be found here in the forums!

Prior Changes:

• There are no aliens in this cut. Yes, there are NO aliens. Not even dead ones. There are still the crystal skulls and skeletons and it’s obvious that they are from another world, but I think the aliens shown in the theatrical cut were exaggerated and ridiculous (and had very bad CGI).
• No Aliens means no UFO as well.
• There is no atomic explosion.
• No atomic explosion means no Indy surviving an atomic explosion in a fridge as well!
• There is no sword-fight between Mutt and Irina. I liked some of the scenes, but overall it was exaggerated and didn’t work for me.
• Except one very short scene, there are no “Mutt swinging like Tarzan through the jungle” scenes.

Detailed changes:

Hot Rod scene:

• there are no prairie dogs!  The dirt mound is run over by the Hot Rod, that’s it. This scene has been done by 15MaF, so all praise for this scene belongs to him!

Warehouse:

• I removed the alien unwrapping. I did this for two reasons: I think there is much more suspense when you don’t know exactly what’s in the wooden box. And as I stated above I don’t want any aliens in this fan-edit!
• I removed the “i like ike” Joke.
• The LED countdown digits have been replaced with Nixie tube digits. This scene has been done by 15MaF, so all praise for this scene belongs to him!

Rocket Sled run:

• I removed the prairie dogs

Atomic explosion:

• This entire scene has been removed. After the rocket sled run, Indy walks away and reaches a town. In the theatrical cut this town is nuked a few moments later. In my version it’s supposed to be a military base.

Interrogation scene:

• I removed the first half of Indy’s interrogation.
• I removed any reference to the fridge and the atomic explosion.

I didn’t change any scenes at the university and train station because they worked for me.

Restaurant/Diner:

• I removed a part of Mutt talking about his mother.
• I removed Mutt yelling “shut up!”. I wanted to make Mutt more likable. I think this helps the viewer to accept him as Indy’s son later.

Town Chase scene:

• The Marcus-Statue is not beheaded. Poor Marcus didn’t deserve this!

Indy’s House:

• I removed Mutt’s phrase “you’re 80”. As I stated above, I wanted to make Mutt more likable.

I didn’t change any scenes at Cusco market, the asylum and the cemetery because they worked for me.

Jungle Camp:

• I removed the scene in which Irina shows Indy the alien (have I already told you that I don’t like aliens in my cut?).

Dry sand scene:

• I removed the scene where Mutt tells Indy to call the snake a rope. Overall I liked the snake scene, but this was childish.

Jungle Chase scene:

• I removed a part of the flirts between Indy and Marion. Love needs some time to develop!
• I removed Mutt’s and Irina’s sword fight.
• I removed every “Tarzan” scene. Mutt gets stuck in the ropes. A few scenes later he sees the cars chasing each other and swings from the tree into Irina’s car. You can hear some apes in the trees but you don’t see them.

I didn’t change the exaggerated waterfall scenes. First I wanted our heroes to fall only one time, but after watching the scene, it didn’t work for me. It always seemed as if something was missing. Even though it still seems to be a little too much, I did not change this scene.

• but again, I had to remove some “babe” and “honey” flirts between Indy and Marion. Their love still needs some time to develop!

Crystal Skull Temple:
I did many cuts and changes here, so I will only write down important ones:

• The crystal skeleton doesn’t move it’s fingers when it’s head is put on it’s corpse.
• I removed every UFO-scene. The place is still turning, but there is no futuristic roof.
• As I had to remove the futuristic UFO roof, I didn’t have any movie scenes in which the russian soldiers die. So I had to insert some death screams, to make the impression that they were all dying.
• I removed every alien, there are only crystal skulls and they don’t change their appearance.
• I removed the original music and added a modified version of John Williams’ “Temple Ruins and the Secret Revealed” to coordinate all the changes and cuts.
• In the scenes in which Irina is killed, I had to heavily zoom into the picture to remove the alien next to her. There is some reduced quality which is notable. But these scenes only last a few seconds, so I hope they don’t stand out too much.

Outside the Temple:

• I removed the whole UFO flying away. Instead, the whole area is being flooded and the temple is destroyed.
• I removed the original music and added a modified version of John Williams’ “The Departure”.

There are for sure many more little changes, but these were the significant ones!

Final Version & Format:

The final runtime for the movie is 111 minutes (105 min without end credits).

1080p High Quality MKV (21,0gb)
Video: H.264 at 25-30mbps VBR
Audio: 5.1 DTS, 5.1 Dolby Digital, Stereo
Extra: Chapter markers

As german is my mother tongue I have made a german audio track in addition to the english version. It’s not included in the MKV but it can be downloaded as a separate AC3 file.

Feel free to tell me about any mistakes, I will take a look and try to improve.

Blu-Ray-Cover:

The arrangement of this cover and the text is based on a cover created by Darren Harrison on Pinterest. It is available for free. I changed the whole front-side and added some information on the back-side.

If you OWN the original movie in at least HD-Quality, PM me for a link!

Important Announcement:
Because links to my films were shared again, I decided to take the films offline. Sorry guys

MMP (ManiacMovieProductions)

Thank you for your kind words. I will send you a PM. But it will take a while cause my Cloud storage got deleted.

Files back online, PM sent 😃

Would love a link!

hansolox73 said:

Watched your Last Jedi cut, loved it. Would like to get a link to this one as well - Thanks for all the great work!

Thank you for your kind words, PM sent

hansolox73 said:

Watched this last night and loved it! Wasn’t sure if I was going to like all the cuts, but it works great!

Both your Last Jedi edit and this cut of Crystal Skull will be in my rotation when viewing these series again. Great job and thanks for all your work on these!

I’m glad you liked it 😃

PM sent

PMs sent

I have very good news for anyone looking for the best possible quality!! I just bought 100 gigabytes (google drive) for one year, so I can upload the 20+gb versions of “The Last Jedi Reforged” and “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Revitalized”.
I think the files will be online the next days. PM me if you own the original movie and want a link. The 14gb files on Mega will still be available for those who like smaller file sizes.
The increased storage space also allows me to publish more of my fan edits, so I will upload my versions of “The Lone Ranger” and “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” in the next few days.
As german is my mother tongue I have made a german audio track in addition to the english version of Indiana Jones 4. It’s not included in the MKV but it can be downloaded as a separate AC3 file.

I got called away part way through, but so far, I really love the improvements. Every time I was ready to grit my teeth at something, I found you already fixed it.

I did think that the crate should have had the ‘Roswell, NM 1947’ removed. It’s a real in your face alien reference.

I do wish there was something that could be done with that whole scene with the magnetism at the warehouse. It just always seems randomly handled. Sometimes the crate is EXTREMELY magnetic, attracting metal objects from an insane distance. Other times it’s lightly attractive or not at all to objects near by.
I suppose since the crystal skull found later attracts gold, I guess we can excuse the randomness of it.

Still, it just feels like it was filmed wrong.

Doctor M said:

I got called away part way through, but so far, I really love the improvements. Every time I was ready to grit my teeth at something, I found you already fixed it.

I did think that the crate should have had the ‘Roswell, NM 1947’ removed. It’s a real in your face alien reference.

I do wish there was something that could be done with that whole scene with the magnetism at the warehouse. It just always seems randomly handled. Sometimes the crate is EXTREMELY magnetic, attracting metal objects from an insane distance. Other times it’s lightly attractive or not at all to objects near by.
I suppose since the crystal skull found later attracts gold, I guess we can excuse the randomness of it.

Still, it just feels like it was filmed wrong.

I know what you mean, there are many scenes that could not be fixed. Thats why the film will never have the quality of the first three.

Finished watching tonight. A really impressive edit and a near watchable version of the movie. It does prove that what the film really needed was extensive reshoots.

I was always fine with Mutt’s fencing skill. It was mentioned early on that he was good at it and to believe Indy’s son might be able to handle himself in a fight is not hard to accept. Editing that bit out made the jungle chase a bit to choppy (and the only time I the movie felt fan-edity).

I would have preferred to see the piranha ants (or whatever they’re supposed to be) edited out. And maybe the people living in the temple walls with seals over top of them like they were embedded there by the people who built the place.

Otherwise, your effort is really good. It’s technically pristine and the movie is much improved.

Thanks for the hard work. I’m now going to read up on your other edits.