Indiana Jones Versus Pirates of the Caribbean: Should There Be a Fifth Movie?

Recently, a friend posted on Facebook about his dislike for the Pirates franchise, and how they better not be making a 5th movie. I replied to the effect that the same should hold true to the Indiana Jones franchise. I thought the last Indiana Jones movie was not only horrible, but it also stole the plot from Stargate: SG1.

To read more about this, see my earlier blog post, found here.

Basically, The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was a let down, because it used some cheesy jeep driving-on-the-edge-of-the-cliff CGI, Indy jumping into a lead fridge to survive a nuke, and had to incorporate aliens into the movie, rather than have Indiana Jones go on a real adventure. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with using aliens, if done right. Stargate: SG-1 did a good job with aliens.

 A Crystal Skull, like in Indiana Jones 4

Indiana Jones 4 did not stay true to the franchise, and did not convince me that it is worthy of a 5th movie.

Now, to be fair, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End was my least favorite movie of this franchise, because it had the giant CGI Calypso wreaking havoc while the two ships fought while spinning inside of a whirlpool. It was not believable, and definitely not cool.



Pirate ships swirling around in Calypso's bathwater

So, opinions aside, let's let the numbers do the talking. I did this side-by-side comparison of the two franchises, and guess which franchise wins when you compare the ticket sales at the box office?

Pirates of the Caribbean, hands down.

Indiana Jones vs. Pirates of the Caribbean franchise statistics

I am not against Disney making a Pirates of the Caribbean Part 5. But I am totally against a 5th Indiana Jones movie. Yes, the last one was that bad.

If you want to know the real problem with Hollywood and movie sequels these days, read my Yahoo! Voices article, found here.

Indiana Jones 4 & The Stolen Crystal Skull from Stargate:SG1

Summary: Indiana Jones 4 stole the Crystal Skull plot from Stargate: SG1. It is a sad day in Hollywood when original stories cannot be made into film. Instead, old ideas from other franchises are re-hashed into movies for the sake of seeing old actors come back one more time.

Shia LaBeouf said this about Indiana Jones 4: "I feel like I dropped the ball on the legacy that people loved and cherished...You get to monkey-swinging and things like that and you can blame it on the writer and you can blame it on Steven [Spielberg]. But the actor's job is to make it come alive and make it work, and I couldn't do it. So that's my fault. Simple."

Indiana Jones 4

Have you ever gone to a movie theater to see something you were excited to see, only to be let down with a ridiculous story, or unbelievable action scenes throughout the movie?  I have.  And without naming any names (see picture above), it seems to happen more often than not.

Indiana Jones 4 left a bad taste in my mouth. Worse than throw up. Maybe because the storyline was stolen, and doesn't work for the Indiana Jones franchise.

Please note that I was already a fan of the first three Indiana Jones movies.  But when you put  all four movies side-by-side, and compare them, one of them is not like the others. Indiana Jones 4 was horrible!

But before dissing Indiana Jones 4 any further, let me point out something that most people are not aware of.  The whole Crystal Skull story was already used.

And this is how I know.  My wife and I are watching Stargate: SG1 at home, and we are in Season 3, episode 21.  Guess what the title of this episode is?  Crystal Skull.  And as we are watching, I scratch my head, because something about this episode is eerily familiar. Basically the whole premise of searching for a Crystal Skull that was placed there by an alien race.

Haven't seen the epsiode?  Buy the complete season on DVD.

Stargate SG1: Season 3 Complete Set

STARGATE SG-1:SEASON 3 GIFTSET BY STARGATE SG-1 (DVD) [5 DISCS] (Google Affiliate Ad)

Stargate SG1: Season 3, Episode 21 "Crystal Skull"
In episode 21, Daniel Jackson comes across a Crystal Skull that does something magical (but explained by the physics and science in the show), which transports him to another plane of existence where the other team members cannot see him.  Fast forward to the end, and they are standing in front of the Crystal Skull, which is connected to an alien race that has placed it there so they can be contacted.  Sound familiar?

Daniel Jackson finds the Crystal Skull

So the episode ends and my mind brings me back to that awful movie that we all know to be Indiana Jones 4.  And this seriously bothered me.

So today, I emailed the writer of SG1, episode 21, and asked him if he received any credit from Indiana Jones 4 (2008) after coming up with the original idea in the year 2000.  He graciously confirmed that he did not because, "that's Hollywood!"  Personally, I wouldn't want to be connected to that movie either, if I was in his shoes.  But it just goes to show that it doesn't pay to steal ideas (plagiarize) and try to label them as fresh and original.

Instead of Harrison Ford reveling in a quadrilogous victory, he will forever be running from the Crystal alien Skull. Somebody should tell him that it was stolen from an Stargate:SG1 storyline.