Be Excellent To Each Other

...whilst I too was in the cinema thinking "please don't be CGI aliens", only for the end protagonists to indeed be CGI aliens, I do think you have to take it in the context that the first film was all about the Ark of the Covenant and the third about the Holy Grail. Depending on your religious sensibilities, there's nothing less believable about Indy uncovering a bunch of extra-terrestrials and their flying saucer.

Plus, a lot is made of the fact that this film is set in the 50's. The whole cinematography of the movie has been designed to give it that 50's B-movie feel as opposed to the 30's/40's serial-flick of the original trilogy. And, let's face it, aliens and flying saucers are a very 50's B-movie device.

At least the Holy Grail and the Ark fit in with the fact that he's an archaeologist (silly, but at least silly within the bounds of the character they've created) - but why the hell would the US government ask a guy who specialises in old pottery to come and have a look at an alien corpse at Roswell?

My memory of quite how it unfolds is a little hazy now, but it smacks a bit of last-minute script redraft fucking it all up. Particularly as, for the most part, he's looking for the archaeologically appropriate El Dorado, and not aliens. But you can't deny the fact that right at the very start it's revealed he was hired by the US Government to take a look at alien corpses and saucer wreckage and that makes no sense at all.

I can see Indy being one of the US government's resident "weird shit" experts. As such, when something they don't understand like Roswell happens they bring in anyone they know who they think might have a clue. He's dealt with all sorts of shit. Didn't seem out of place to me, at any rate. And the whole "aliens came to South America to help kick start farming and shit" thing is all part of fringe archaeology and fits in the same category as the ark and grail quests and the like, so aliens in El Dorado aren't out of place at all.

But i can see him as one of the weird scientist, but why didn't he get to see anything, as he reveals to the fbi.. he only would be useful if he could see the context, wouldn't he

agree with the 30s to 50s transition, think they did that very nicely, with that hilarious getting away from the ruskies in a Grease bar