Re: Indiana jones 5 still happening?
I guess we just disagree. No biggie.
I do tend to think that "Indy knockoffs" are knockoffs because they stay too close to the Indy characteristics (e.g., a professor who deals with the supernatural, travels the world, hunts for lost artifacts, etc.) rather than doing enough to make the character distinct and interesting.
I still don't think the character itself is all that deep or complex, as much as it's a set of characteristics thrust into certain frequently-repeated scenarios. And that's fine, but it does mean that it's easy to map those characteristics onto another character and have them be called an "Indy knockoff."
I think if you're gonna do something like an Indy knockoff movie, you need to do what Raiders did and evolve the concept on which it's based. Raiders brought modern sensibilities to Republic Serial style stories. It was a "Republic knockoff" that evolved the concept into something more. A future "Indy knockoff" would need to do the same by taking Indy and applying more modern sensibilities to the storytelling.
So, whereas Indy evolved the concept of Republic serials by doing things like portraying a hero who honestly does suffer and get beat up (the scene on the Bantu Wind), a future story would need to evolve the Indy approach and flesh out the main character further to make them more approachable. Lots of people talking about "making it darker," but I think what they really want are more grounded, realistic characters albeit still in fantastical situations. They want to be able to relate to the characters more than we did in the past, and often that's done by having real, harsh consequences to actions or characters who are deeply flawed (e.g., "darker"). This doesn't have to be the only angle to take. You can still have an upbeat and hopeful film with a character who feels fleshed out. I'd say future films should emphasize making the characters deeper rather than darker, and thereby making them far more distinct and less prone to "knockoff" status.
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