Indiana Jones 5 is currently dealing with a production setback due to an injury sustained by star Harrison Ford, but following years of delays, the new movie is finally happening. We will finally get the long awaited new adventure from Indiana Jones. And while this has many fans excited it has also generated its share of backlash, and director James Mangold has engaged with some of those who have been critical of the film sight unseen.
About a month ago, James Mangold took to Twitter to respond to somebody who listed a number of reasons why they believed Indiana Jones 5 was destined to be a bad movie. Mangold took issue with each "reason" in turn, and in doing so, brought a lot of attention to the entire interaction. Mangold's response included a comment that the original post was being made from a basement, and while the director is apologizing for the way in which he made his statement, he's also saying that his comments were not made simply because the film was being criticized. According to Mangold...
Um. I never said "people who criticize me live in basements". People criticize me all the time and don't get such comments. I think you know what caused me to reply to the specific click baiters the way I did. And I have said I am sorry if, in my anger, I spoke too broadly.
It's one thing for somebody to be critical of James Mangold as a director or one of his films, he's likely very used to that. But in calling the post that started all this something from "click baiters" it's clear that his frustration was from the fact that he believes the post was only made in order to get a response, not to convey any actual information.
James Mangold pointed out at the time that some of the information, like the fact that the Indiana Jones 5 script was written by Jonathan Kasdan, was just plain wrong. Kasdan had taken a shot at the script, as many others did before and after him, but the final script was written from scratch by James Mangold with Jez and John-Henry Butterworth. While other "points," like suggesting that Harrison Ford's age was somehow a reason the movie would be bad, was purely ageist. On top of all that, nobody has actually seen the movie that's being made, it isn't even done filming yet, so nobody has any idea whether it will be any good or not.
Maybe Indiana Jones 5 will turn out to be great, maybe it won't, but it has an accomplished director, a solid screenwriting team, and an incredible cast. That doesn't always lead to a great movie, but it probably earns them all the benefit of the doubt. There's nothing wrong with withholding judgement until we actually see the finished product.
