James Mangold didn't like Crystal Skull because he thought it should have portrayed Indy as feeling that the world had overtaken him, because of the existence of astronauts and Elvis Presley. Because Indy wasn't portrayed as a sad old man overtaken by time in this specific way, Mangold says he "didn't feel like [he] knew what Crystal Skull was about." But of course, Crystal Skull opens with "Hound Dog" by Elvis Presley, which we later realize refers not only to Indy, who was named after a dog, but also to his son Mutt, who also has a dog's name and is part of a youth subculture that idolizes Elvis. The theme of the film is Indy feeling like he has reached a point in his life where he has stopped gaining anything and is only losing things--Marcus, his father, and now his job. The core emotional relationship of the film has to do with Indy struggling with the generational differences between himself and his son, who by the end of the story becomes someone Indy has been lucky enough to gain late in life, completing the film's theme. But as previously mentioned, Mangold didn't like this and he didn't understand this. And so he cruelly killed off Mutt, directly unwinding the happy ending of the previous film, terminating the Jones bloodline, and leaving Indy a sad old lonely man who, for some strange reason, resents astronauts and (presumably) Elvis Presley.
