Movie Review: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

I went into this movie like everyone else- with very high expectations. Maybe too high. With this movie, the burning question that needs to be answered is a simple one. Is it as good as the first one, the original 1981, Raiders of the Lost Ark. That's a tall order, because Raiders of the Lost Ark was an action adventure masterpiece. It was totally unexpected and it changed our notions of what an action adventure movie was all about. I really wanted this movie to be that good. For one thing it's been 19 years since the we last saw an Indiana Jones adventure. That's a long time to wait. For another, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom from 1984 and 1989's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade while not disappointments weren't films that nailed it the way Raiders did back in 1981.

As I went inside and took a seat it was almost unbelievable how you could almost tell from the faces of people walking into the theater that everyone was hoping for another Raiders. When I walked out, here's what I thought. Some may want to whack me with a bull whip for this but Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls was not the masterpiece I was hoping for. It's good, worth seeing, and it's a must see if your an Indiana Jones fan, but it's no Raiders.

It wasn't that Harrison Ford is too old. That was burning question number two. If Ford was to old for the part or if his age was handled wrong the whole movie could have been a disaster. The answer there is-no problem. Ford, who is now 65, doesn't look all that different than he did when he was in his late 40's to mid-50's when he was in Temple of Doom and Last Crusade. And if you follow his film career like I do, I thought he gave his best performance in a long while. So Ford held up his end of it. The movie handles his age in a way that turns it into an advantage adding another vein of humor to mine. Indy still tries to do the things he used to be able to do even though, sometimes, he can't quite do them anymore. In the movie's opening wharehouse scene he proves he can can still handle a bull whip it's just that his timing is a little off.

Also back on board for this movie was John Williams for the music, which is always a big plus for any film, Steven Spielberg, and John Lucas were of course back as well. Spielberg is the movie's director and Lucas gets credit as producer and co-writer. Remembering what Lucas did as a director while resurrecting the Star Wars series in 1999, we movie fans should consider ourselves lucky that Spielberg directed and not Lucas. Spielberg is great at building tension, and releasing it with humor and he's always been the master of the action sequence in this vein of action adventure. He invented it!

The plot is pretty thin, but there is one. It's set in the 1950's and the Communists are the bad guys. I should say bad girls. Kate Blanchett is the head Commie villan but that's all I'll say about the story. When we read a movie reviews we want to know if the movie is a good enough movie to go out and see, or not. If it is good enough, and I think Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls is definitely worth going to see, then we don't want the experience spoiled by knowing the plot. We always care about the villans in this type of movie and Kate Blanchett is pretty good, but she goes more than bit over the top. By comparison, I didn't really have a hard time putting her in second behind

There are four things to like a lot about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls. First are the Spielberg action sequences and there are a lot of them. Second are the sets. Incredible. A+ on the film photography, special effects and the sets. The third very enjoyable thing about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls is that it delivers on all the weird, mysterious, occult stuff that we've come to expect in an Indiana Jones movie. That' stuff is here in spades. Giant ants, portals to another dimension, cities of gold, skulls that hold the knowledge of mankind, hyper-magnetic crates and an explanation for flying saucers that I still think is half plausible. The last and maybe most enjoyable aspect of this movie is the return of Karen Allen as Indiana Jones's love interest from Raider of the Lost Ark. Their on screen chemistry in Raiders of the Lost Ark was part of that movie's punch. A punch that the other Indiana Jones movies didn't have. Indy had girls in the other movies but nothing came close to the sparks that were created when he an Marion were on screen together. So all of that was exactly what was hoping for.

So why am I complaining and why am I not calling this movie a masterpiece. We get all of the above, plus a 6 minute fight against a guy a foot taller than Indy. We get a bull whip scene and a "I gotta get my fedora hat back" scene. We get an Indy's afraid of snakes scene, and plenty of scenes of bad guys getting killed in the most gruesome/gross ways. We even get an Indy running from the natives scene. We also get the arch villain being corrupted and consumed by the occult scene ala' Belloc in the climax from Raiders of the Lost Ark. But that's where I found myself starting to get a slight let down with the movie. Too much of the movie is spent hitting the bits from previous Indiana Jones movies that audiences liked the best at the expense of putting something new or unexpected into the Indiana Jones formula.

In 1981, when Raiders of the Lost Ark hit the screen, from the very first moment when the Paramount Pictures mountain logo morphed into a real mountain in the jungles of South America, we knew we were in for an unexpected twist on the action adventure genre. How do you turn an Indiana Jones movie into something new and unexpected- I don't know, but I know it can be done. Casino Royale took a chance on the James Bond formula by making Bond much more human and by turning down the gadgets. They put a new twist on the formula and came up with a huge hit and revitalized the franchise. When I saw Casino Royale the movie wasn't what I was expected. It was a lot better. For Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls it was almost like someone decided to play it a lot safer knowing the formula would still sell a ton of tickets at the box office. I'm sure whom ever that was is right.

A lot of critics may say that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls is just a good installment in the Indiana Jones franchise. No, It's a better movie than that. It's a better movie than Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom or Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. But as far as containing anything fresh, unexpected, or new, I would have to agree with them to a point. I'd say it was a very good installment.

I rated Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls a 7 out of 10.