Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008): A Review

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) Starring Harrison Ford, Shia LeBoeuf, Ray Winstone, Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen, John Hurt, Jim Broadbent, Andrew Divoff, Alan Dale, Ernie Reyes Jr., Helena Barrett, Audi Resendez, Sophia Stewart, Nicole Luther, Dean Grimes, Brian Knutson, Joel Staffer, Neil Flynn.Directed by Steven Spielberg.Running time: 124 minutes.Rating: PG-13"Grab the snake!"

A geriatric version of Indiana Jones returns in an action film/slash family reunion.The year is 1957 (19 years after the events depicted in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) and archaeologist Indiana Jones clashes with Soviets (looking much like Nazis of Raiders of the Lost Ark) led by the evil Colonel/Dr. Irina Spalko (Blanchett) in searching for a magnetic crystal skull which as legend tells it endows a man with great power if he returns it to El Dorado, the city made of pure gold.

Jones is suspected of collusion with the Soviet Union after his friend Mac (Winstone) turns traitor and is put on sabbatical by his University. The running joke here is that during the Red Scare in the United States of the 1950s the one depicted in this film is utterly crawling with Soviet spies.An alien intelligence intercedes partly explaining the findings of what appear to some to be alien corpses at area 51 in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947.

I don't think they really needed to make any new Indiana Jones movies and was not very pleased they made this one. Frankly I never thought they needed to make any new Indiana Jones movies after the first one and the three sequels have not changed my opinion. At $180 million dollars the budget almost certainly foretold an overproduced monstrosity. Rather ironic considering it was meant to capture the spirit of low-budget adventure serials. But millions of moviegoers worldwide didn't agree with me.

This enormously profitable (over a billion dollars American in grosses) franchise peaked from an artistic perspective in the original Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). It hit its low point with its much reviled first sequel Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) which is by far the worst of the four. Then it rebounded slightly to cash in again in its second sequel Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) which was only marginally better than Temple of Doom. There was even a short-lived TV series called "Young Indiana Jones" starring Sean Patrick Flannery in the early 1990s.

From a critics perspective the character and set up plainly do not endure lasting scrutiny. That the first one worked as well as it did was due mainly to the fact that it entertained audiences so thoroughly it made close examination of the plot and character difficult. The boldness of its presentation and holes in the plot were covered by pulse pounding action sequences, immaculate visuals, great production value an exceptional supporting cast and the brilliant dialogue of a sharp screenplay.

The audiences who loved the first one did a lot of work in liking it whether they know it or not. I suspect that few of them do. Jones is a cardboard cutout character but the odd line of dialogue, which suggests a back-story (but does not really tell it) allowed us to infer whatever our minds would.

The character development done (and not done) here actually makes all the Indiana Jones films I grew up with that much less watch able. What is with all the swinging around?Hollywood is desperate to cash in as fast as it can while it can. Usually that goes without saying, but films like this one and other recent productions give that new meaning. This film is fully as needless as the fourth Die Hard movie and made for the same reasons and audience.

I guess they figured they had better get Ford (aged 66 now) in one of these before he starts going around with a walker. Five years from now I can picture them making an action movie where he foils a hostage taking at a nursing home his character lives at. "Indiana Jones and the Quest for the Lost Suppositories"?As for the inclusion of Shia LeBoeuf as Mutt Williams, a new sidekick for Jones and his lovechild with Marion, we have Steven Spielberg to thank and so does LeBoeuf. Take a look at pics of Spielberg when he was LeBoeuf's age. They're dead ringers. Like George Lucas has done, Spielberg is now determined, it would seem, to create Hollywood stars rather than hire established ones. But he is going one better than Lucas ever did. In LeBoeuf, Spielberg is making one in his own image.