Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull: The Case For Aliens (Repost)

Yesterday I re-watched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, because I hadn't seen it in a while, and it's just come to Netflix, so I figured "how bad could it be?" Perhaps related, the other day I re-watched another movie that didn't live up to it's potential after 20 years of waiting, The Last Jedi. Needless to say, neither of these movies were hat I had hoped they would be, but I don't like to whine and complain that someone else created something and it wasn't what I wanted. Instead, I'll just sigh and lament that whoever is doing these reboots of iconic movies from my youth doesn't have the same point of view as I do about them.

But I digress... back when the movie came out and I watched Indy on the big screen for the first time in decades, I had written something about it (elsewhere) that I think holds true. I'll re-post that here, edited a bit to clean it up and make sure it makes sense:

The first time I saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, when the movie came out, I kept thinking "... Aliens? Really!?!" 

Then I watched the movie again with my father, and between thinking about it for a week and watching it a second time, I liked it a whole lot better. Much like Star Wars: Episode 1, I was fairly disappointed in some of the silliness (like the blatant racial stereotypes, and Jar Jar's antics), but upon reflection I realized it was Not That Bad. Of course with a franchise like Star Wars (or Indiana Jones for that matter) - why would anyone want to settle for Not That Bad?

I still think it's clear that Kingdom of the Crystal Skull hasn't come close to Raiders of the Lost Ark or The Last Crusade, and I already liked it better than The Temple of Doom, but I definitely enjoyed KotCS more the second time around. Here's what I realized that improved the movie for me...

The Indiana Jones movies that were really good involved Indiana revealing some of the more famous, important, mysterious secrets one could conceive in Archeology - finds of biblical proportions: the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail. Obviously those have been used up, so what famous archaeological mystery remains for Indy to discover? Well, there are several things off the top of my head (which I assert is where the basic idea should come from, so it's recognizable to everyone)... Stonehenge, Easter Island, Egyptian Pyramids, Aztec/Mayan ruins, and maybe Atlantis. All of those are sometimes surrounded by rumors of aliens, and of them, the Mayan ruins come stock with legends of a city of gold. A city of gold seems highly appropriate for Indiana Jones to go after, and the alien bent not only makes sense, but fits perfectly with the pattern of IJ movies - a fantastical explanation of the real life mystery, and a spectacular, paranormal climax to the movie.

I was initially (and still am) disappointed in the process Jones took finding Akator. He did do some figuring and a (very) little research, he followed a clue to Peru, and another to the tomb of the conquistador explorer, sort of followed a clue to find the city of gold, and all the while had a back and forth fight with a ceaseless opponent. However, it seemed like this movie rushed that process compared to Raiders and Last Crusade, and the back and forth with the Russians seemed a lot less epic. In Raiders Indy and Marion were captured, escaped, captured again, rescued, etc. In the Last Crusade there was a constant struggle between Jones and the Nazis in which they key to the movie - information about the grail- was being passed back and forth. In KotCS, the entirety of the conflict was a game of keep away.

While that complaint sums up much of what was disappointing about the movie, it does not speak ill of the basic premise, which is that Indiana Jones uncovers one of the great archaeological mysteries of the world, which turns out to be that aliens were responsible for the hyper-advanced culture of ancient Mayans. They called them "Interdimensional Beings" instead of the perfectly plausible aliens from another planet which could very well exist and keep the mystery in the realm of reality - frankly I'm sorry they chose to go that route. I'm also not sure what was up with abnormally large and aggressive ants, or monkeys which attack Russians for no apparent reason. I'm not sure whether I can abide the whole idea of psychic warfare, but its not such a stretch that I couldn't live with it - after all, the Russians need some reason to be after the lost city of gold, and just money doesn't seem that exciting.

So see the movie, it's honest to god Indiana Jones. Though the character was so cool to begin with, I don't know that he needed to survive a ground zero nuclear explosion, or all of a sudden have ridden with Pancho Villa (incidentally when he was barely older than he was at the beginning of The Last Crusade). Really, it's not as bad as you might think at first.

And by all means, if you dislike the film, don't dislike it because of the aliens!

Edit: that Poncho Villa comment I have heard refers to things that happened in the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, which I never got around to watching.

Assassins Creed 1 Free Download

Assassins Creed 1 Free Download PC game setup in single direct link for windows. Assassin's Creed 1 is an action and adventure game.

Assassin's Creed 1 Overview

Assassin's Creed is an action adventure game. It is developed under the banner of Ubisoft Montreal for Microsoft Windows. It was released on 13^th November 2007 and Ubisoft published this game. It is the first game in the Assassin's Creed series. You can also download Assassin's Creed 2.

This game is set in the era of Third Crusade. And it mainly revolves around two big factions battling against each other. This includes the Assassins and the Templars. This game is very nearer to the actual history of assassins. They are said to be a sub branch of the Muslim sect Shiite. In this game you play the role of a modern day man named Desmond Miles. An organization uses a machine "The Animus" which allows Desmond to control and view the memories of his ancestors. He can alter these memories. In this game his ancestor Altair Ibn-La'Ahad is shown. The war between the two factions is mainly due to "Piece of Eden" a mysterious relic. You may also like to download Assassin's Creed 3.

Assassin's Creed 1 is an open world exploring game. The leader of assassins Al Mualim gives missions to Altair which he has to complete. This primarily includes assassinations of big personalities of Templars. There are side missions included in this game as well such as pick pocketing, interrogation and eavesdropping. There are many behaviors introduced which are on individual as well as communal basis. Also the health of player is shown in the form of synchronization between Altair and Desmond's memories. Altogether this game was a very famous and trend setter game of this age. You can also download Assassin's Creed Chronicles China  PC Game 2015.

Features of Assassin's Creed 1

Following are the main features of Assassin's Creed 1 that you will be able to experience after the first install on your Operating System.

• Exciting action and adventure game.
• Set in an era of Third Crusade.
• Open world exploring game.
• Need to assassinate Templars.
• Side missions like pick pocketing, interrogation and eavesdropping included.
• Trend setting game of modern era.
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System Requirements of Assassin's Creed 1

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• CPU: 2.6GHz Intel Dual core processor or later.
• RAM: 1GB
• Hard Disk Space: 8GB

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Uclan Games Design Christmas Party 2018.

The Games Design Christmas party was in full swing as a final celebration before the hols and following all the creative activity over the autumn term.

The photos speak for themselves to safely say that "A good time was had by all with prizes and lots of cake!

The Games Design staff would like to thanks everyone for joining in the merriment and a special thanks to Jim and Rhoda for running the event and the following students for their generous contributions towards the event.


Carla Brown (Year 1) for organising all the lovely food treats
Nicola Hynes (Year 2) for a smashing super chocolatey vegan yule log
Alex Keates, Lewis Wright , Dan Butler (Year 2) Luke Briggs, Sam Albanese (Year 3) for setting up the gaming and quiz questions
Dylan Swarbrick and Finley Tyler (Year 1) for setting up the Christmas lights
Dan Butler and Dominic Kay (Year 2) for the classic karaoke!