Indiana Jones and the Empire of the Impulse Purchase

Well, the air is getting crisp, and it may not be too long before we see a frost enveloping the plains here in central IL. I am taking a brief respite from the usual Tuesday chores to glance at some of this week's DVD offerings, with IJATKOTCS, or Crystal Skull, being the obvious leader of the pack this week. Although by no means the greatest film in the Indiana Jones Trilogy+1, Crystal Skull fared better than expected aesthetically, if not commercially. I wrote briefly in anticipation of the film back in April, but now as I am reading of the supposedly appealing special features, consisting of 'hours' of footage of Spielberg and his crew, I am balking at the thought of clicking the Add to Cart button.
As many of the web reviews will attest, the film was not exactly necessitated by a great book or screenplay, and it is really nothing more than a vanity project. As an IJ fan, I am strongly tempted to purchase the DVD if for no other reason than to complete the set, but being what it is, a vanity project, it could be considered to not even be part of the series. IS this debatable? I will likely be perusing the web for opinions later tonight, so I thought I would come up with some topics that are open to debate (and hopefully I will find myself swaying toward either sharing these opinions or completely rejecting them by night's end):

1. This film was made because Harrison Ford is getting older, and all involved realized the potential of a revisiting of sorts, regardless of existing material to work with.
2. Studio Executives desperate for material devised an ingenious recipe for new successes: resurrect old successes.
3. That this was a film may have been 'easier' or cheaper to make given advancements in Special Effects - I call the bluff on this one, as we've already been informed of Guy Hendrix Dyas' painstaking efforts to avoid CGI pitfalls in his designs.
4. The film was in the cooker for many years, and surfaced once all the logistical/bureaucratic red tape had been all but annihilated.
5. All of the above.

You were expecting a curve ball, perhaps?

~dm