It’s not hard to buy Chris Pratt as an action hero since he’s already played the part more than once, but as Indiana Jones, after we’ve seen Harrison Ford for so long, it feels as though Pratt’s features just aren’t hardened enough, or rough enough, to really pull it off. Jon Fuge of MovieWeb has his own opinion on the matter. Give credit to Deepfake for the almost seamless way that his face was plastered on Indiana’s body, but put against the original it just doesn’t look right somehow. He’s just not the same type of actor as Harrison Ford honestly, which should be pretty obvious. He’s an action star that looks more like the kid next door that you happen to like because he’s a good guy and might be a little mischievous but otherwise has a good heart and is someone you’d trust implicitly. Harrison Ford had the roguish look to him throughout a lot of his movies, giving the impression that he was trustworthy but that he was still grizzled, hardened in some way, by the life he’d lived. That’s a big part of what made Indiana Jones who he was since despite being a scholar and the type that would wear glasses and a bow tie in the classroom, he was also the pistol-carrying, whip-swinging type that would stand up to injustice and some of the most deadly individuals in the world all while trying to retrieve a lost artifact that he might get to put into a museum or that might go back to its rightful owners. Chris Pratt looks more or less like the guy that would do the things Indy did to turn a profit, kind of like he was in the role of Star Lord.
For a futuristic treasure hunter Pratt was definitely the guy, the type that would seek out objects throughout the universe to pick up a little coin and then go do who knows what with it. But putting him in Indy’s time just doesn’t feel a right since not only does he not rock the outfit that well, but he just looks a little too fresh-faced for the movies. Obviously things could be changed up and the makeup department could make him appear more grizzled, or older, or something to accommodate, but it’s still a belief that he wouldn’t look right for the part since he looks like too nice of a guy to be gunning down Nazis and duking it out with Thuggee cultists. If anything he’d be more like one of Indy’s sidekicks that helped him out on occasion, maybe the pilot from Raiders of the Lost Ark, or another ally from one of the other movies. But Ford had a type of snarl to him that gave Indy and edge, a toughness to his character that could be turned on and off, and no matter how many action movies Pratt’s been in at this point he still has that look of the nice guy you’d rather invite in for a beer than someone you’d want to go on an adventure with.
There’s nothing to take away from Pratt’s performance to date in any movie or show since he’s proven himself as a talented man and has gained a lot of cred as an action star, but he’s not the tough guy of the bunch, not by a long shot. In a sense, even Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Star was more grizzled than Peter Quill, as the original Avenger and the original Guardian had both been through a lot in their lives, but both managed to weather those experiences in a very different way. Plus, despite his rough upbringing, Peter never had to go through some of the things that Tony did as he got older as he learned how to be a sneak and basically move around trouble rather than take it head on. This is another reason why Pratt filling the role of Indiana Jones doesn’t feel like it would work, since he’s not that much of a stand-up fighter, where Jones really stood in there and tried to bang with some of the toughest people in the movies. In Temple of Doom he took on a Thuggee cultist that was twice his size and despite being tortured with a voodoo doll, which was odd seeing in that type of setting, he was doing quite a bit of damage throughout the fight. Comparing this to Peter Quill, who’s never been much of a physical fighter as he relies on his weapons and gadgets more than anything, and you’ve got a completely different character that’s far more use to a different style and therefore might not fit the mold that people would want to see. Both men obviously nailed their respective characters in a big way, but when it comes to Indiana Jones, Deepfake kind of just confirmed that it’s not really Pratt’s perfect role.
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