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I know the two aren't mutually exclusive but I think I'd have still preferred a proper "ancient god" based solution to everything.

This was certainly my reaction when I heard about the plot - but ask yourself this, would the God of the Ark and the Grail have permitted the proto-Incan gods, or any other gods, to exist at all?  (Leaving aside that whole business with Kali Ma and Shiva, obviously).  In a world where the protagonists know that the Judeo-Christian God is real and acts in the contemporary world to smite Nazis and heal professors of medieval literature of their mortal wounds, aren't beings from another dimension a safer bet than the rivals of the famously jealous Yahweh?

The thing is, if the Christian god wasn't making himself known to the Mayans (or Egyptians, Greeks, Norsemen) he can't really complain if some other deities set themselves up for a bit of love.
At the end of the day gods are like sextuplets children - there just ain't enough tits to go round. Share the love!

I'd quite like a Top Trumps set like the Marvel ones that Waddingtons released in the late 80s.
That could be crowd sourced easily but the sticking point is always balancing the categories and making sure the information is accurate (the modern Marvel Trumps I've seen have been pretty rubbish in this regard).

My favourite aspect of Crystal Skull is the KGB's psychic femme fatale, whose powers are mostly understated from what I remember.

She just 'knows theenks before anyone elsk', I believe. And would pass for Lulu Romanov on an off day, which is enough to grant her considerable power over me at any rate.

Doesn't she fry the lock on the warehouse door with telekinesis or did I imagine that?

I went to see Temple of Doom at the cinema and for that Christmas I received the St Michael (for some reason, in those days, Marks and Spencer's used to do their own licensed annuals) Indiana Jones And the Temple of Doom annual/storybook which I'm pretty sure had a still of Mola Ramm holding somebody's heart in it! I'll have to see if I can find it and check.

I dunno, I'm well aware that all the films have similarly outrageous moments in them, but for some reason they don't bother me nearly as much (if at all). I think perhaps the difference is that in the original films they feel like natural progressions of the plot (if sometimes silly or unrealistic) and part of the fun, where I was too conscious in Crystal Skull of the film crew piling incident on top of incident in an attempt to win me round, or worse, because 'that's what happens in Indy movies.'

Mmmm. And maybe something to do with the sillier bits in the earlier films being relatively brief?

I had a problem with the aliens in Crystal Skull, and while you could argue that if we accept outlandish elements like supernatural religious artefacts, a literal Holy Grail* and mystical cults then why not aliens? But I think it's largely down to how it is presented - in previous Indy films, it feels like for the most part we're just glimpsing the edges of the fantastical - in Raiders there's one scene that goes bananas and the whole film builds towards it.

It's the difference between seeing say, Indy exploring the crashed, ancient wreck of a UFO and literally having aliens and UFOs right up in yo' face as they are in the third act of Crystal Skull. I have very fond memories of the Lucasarts adventure game Indiana Jones and The Fate of Atlantis, which I felt had the elements more in balance.

I had a similar experience to you, Jimbo - I remember really liking the early parts of the film like the chase through the University campus as it somewhat captured the feel of the old films, but lost interest following one too many OTT cgi set-pieces that - for me - lacked any sense of peril. I never felt like any of the (too many) characters were in any danger. I think with a lot of modern films there's that sense of an 'uncanny valley' effect - once you pass a certain sweet spot, the more escalating peril and unlikely escapes and near-misses you pile on, the more the audiences brains start to check out and the less tense it gets, and the heavily green-screened look and feel exacerbates this. It all looks too clean whereas the old films had a sweaty, gritty authentic feel to them.

*The Templar knight at the end of Crusade is just straight-up silly, though.

This pretty much sums up my initial thoughts on the film after seeing it at the pictures.
As I said though, I've pretty much gotten over those criticisms and look past them to find an enjoyable - though admittedly slightly silly - film that I can enjoy.
I don't quite know how I went from finding the aliens a step too far to my current feelings that they are actually handled pretty well.
As for the CGI backgrounds - in my mind they're a throwback to the obvious mattes used in 50s B movies. Whether this is intentional or not, it's enough of a justification that they don't bother me.
I could probably have a stab at explaining away the 'lack of peril' as similar to the constant cheats in the serials of old (I'm thinking of that rant that Cathy Bates has in 'Misery').

When all's said and done you either like it or you don't - I'll certainly watch it again when it comes on telly. 

There are some great sets in Crystal Skull though - the Mayan graveyard is excellent and incredibly creepy!

Last night I watched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull on telly.

I've come to really like this film. When I first saw it at the cinema it didn't really feel like an Indy film and I got annoyed at the gopher's, the fridge and the Tarzan bit. I'm over all that now and I can enjoy this film for the fun romp that it is.

This is the second time I've watched it on TV and it gets better on repeated viewings. It holds its pace remarkably well and there are some great scenes. The motorcycle escape and jungle chase are both pretty great action scenes and I really like the way the baddies are introduced at the beginning.

In many ways this is the closest in tone to Raiders. It doesn't have the over the top comedy of Last Crusade or the schizophrenic kids film/super dark supernatural drama feel of Temple of Doom.

Overall I think it's a pretty good film. Ideally it would have been made a few years earlier - Ford looks just a little bit too old.
In some ways I think it's a shame they haven't continued the franchise with Mutt as I quite liked the character. Some sort of Mutt Williams X-Files type thing set in the 50s could have been good.

I'd kind of assumed Phil Everly was already dead but I have to say I really like The Everly Brothers (particularly 'Love is Strange' and 'How Can I Meet Her?').

The Everlys and Buddy Holly are the only artists from the 50's that I really enjoy listening to. I've always thought Elvis was overrated.

I thought Mayfly was working his way through the women in order to find some opportunity to kill the soldier while his guard was down.
Wasn't that what the whole 'who could you only kill at a wedding?' bit was about? Mayfly didn't have the balls to take the soldier on at his home - probably because he's double hard and there was a good chance he'd be armed.
Mayfly was gathering as much info as he could in an attempt to find an opportunity to kill the soldier with minimum risk.
Being at a wedding, in the guise of a photographer, is a good opportunity to get close to people, even manhandle them, without rousing suspicion.

Yep, I'm absolutely loving Assassin's Creed 4 - best one in the series in my opinion.

There seem to some lesser known characters scheduled though - I think Captain Britain and Namor are both getting collections.

How do you know?  Or at least, can you say a little more on what's coming?

There's some info on the big cardboard backing thing that issue 1 is taped to. I've chucked it out now but it says something like 'All you need to know about Marve's Mightiest Heroes such as...' And then there are a load of head shots with names underneath.
Also, the magazine thing folds out into a nice big poster.

I had XG3 on the GameCube and loved it - it gets super fast later on and some of the tracks are crazy!

I picked the first one up in WH Smiths a couple of days ago.

1. 1854. I'm a sucker for Cliff Robinson / Teague and I love all the Easter Eggs in this picture. Great composition too.
2. 1832. Another Robinson / Teague. I've picked this because it also has a great composition but also lots of movement and it's really atmospheric.
3. 1818. This looks like a still taken straight from an action film. Again, there's loads of movement and this would have been sure to grab the attention of a 12 year old me - real 'pick up off the shelf' appeal.

Honourable mentions to Leigh Gallagher's Zombie silhouette for a great piece of design and to Clint Langley's Slaine covers which I'm a big fan of.

Richard Gere does drive a rather nice Lotus Esprit in it though.