I’m not sure but what most of my complaints about the movie were more about direction choices than the script itself. I think it would have been an eminently better film had 90% of the shots been done for real and with no (or little) CGI.

I will say that Crystal Skull would have been considerably better had Spielberg been able to hold at bay Lucas’ CGI tendencies. (i.e. no Caddyshack gopher, no race through the jungle on cars in a studio, no Tarzan vine swinging, and so forth) Seriously, even most of the ending (which was pretty weak) I could have handled were it not for the silly CGI routines.

Supposedly, the Darabont script has leaked. I’m interested in your take on this, Clark–is this really any better than the final product? I haven’t read the whole thing yet, but it strikes me as somewhat boring so far. Maybe I lack imagination.

I’ve also read the Saucer Men From Mars(had potential, but lost me towards the end) and Indiana Jones And The Monkey King(terrible) scripts. It’s interesting that the rumor is that there were all these “awesome” scripts, and mean crazy Lucas shot them all down and demanded CGI monkeys instead. So far, none of the rejected scripts have seemed very good to me. Am I wrong?

Anyway…now that I’ve seen the movie, I can say that I’m disappointed. Action sequences were too silly. And yet, I loved seeing Indiana Jones again, and the sidekick characters were all pretty good.

I wonder what would have happened if George Lucas had directed it? I honestly think it would have been a better movie. I realize this is a controversial opinion.

Oddly the one that made me feel better was this one even though it is a negative review.

Land Before Time was Spielberg not Lucas, wasn’t it? (Yeah, too lazy to imdb it) I don’t think Lucas was involved with Labyrinth at all. That was Jim Henson as I recall.

I don’t know enough about the production history of Howard The Duck to be able to effectively debate it. But I will say that there seems to be a difference between things like Star Wars/Indiana Jones/Willow, and things like Howard The Duck/Land Before Time/Labyrinth.

Willow may have been directed by Ron Howard, but it strikes me as more of a Lucas movie than a Howard movie. (Even if I did hate it.) Labyrinth may have been produced by Lucas, but it strikes me as more of a Henson movie than a Lucas movie. Likewise, Howard The Duck strikes me as more of a [whichever no-names directed Howard The Duck] movie than Lucas movie.

Ok, I’ll admit it. I have no idea what I’m talking about.

I think Lucas was much more involved in Howard the Duck than you suggest Jeff. He went through a period where he as a quasi-directing producer. (Much like Spielberg in his early productions did much more than most producers) Of course the key producers are pretty controlling in terms of how the movie is put together. Some are more hands off than others. But I don’t think anyone ever accused Lucas of being hands off.