Review: Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull

Let the Lucas/Spielberg-bashing begin! Oh wait, it already has... never mind!

Here's the thing: I like each of the first 3 Indiana Jones movies to varying degrees, but even the least of them (Temple of Doom) is entertaining enough to make me want to watch it every few years or so. And the best of them (Raiders of the Lost Ark)? Also entertaining enough to make me want to watch it every few years or so. I don't think a single one of them is a great movie, any more than I think any of the six Star Wars films are all that great... they're all just great fun, and that's all I expect from them!

And so it is with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It's got some nice parts, including nods to the earlier films in the series and some intentionally-laugh-out-loud bits of dialogue; and it's got its fair share of scenes that don't work at all if you think about them for more than half a second. But you're not supposed to give them that much thought: this is popcorn movie-watching at its purest. Could Indy really survive a 1950s nuclear test within a lead-lined refrigerator that was shot up into the air and bounced across the ground at tremendous speed? Probably not, but in this comic book-ish sort of a movie: of course he can! And he doesn't even suffer any broken bones or contract terminal cancer in the process!

As a young adult, when I saw Return of the Jedi for the first time (that's the one with the Ewoks in it, right?), I had to finally give in and just turn my brain off during the scene where various characters zip through the forests on air-bikes at impossible speeds without hitting anything (except where the plot called for the bad guys to be taken out in that way). Those sorts of things make no sense at all, if you actually believe that they're happening, but of course they aren't (and you know it). And the same thing applies here, in the not-one, not-two, then-I-stopped-counting chase scenes that move the story along - or not! - in Indiana Jones blah blah blah Crystal Skull. It's high octane fun, and you either love it while your brain is off making up tomorrow's work schedule or you get up and leave the theatre.

Did it bother me that aliens (or trans-dimensional beings) were brought into Indy's world? Well, anyone who balks at that turn-of-events probably has a much stronger belief than I do in the mumbo jumbo that filled the first three films. For me, it's all magic and hokum, with aliens actually managing to seem slightly more likely than holy grails, mystical tablets of deadly energy and hearts that can continue to beat after being plucked from your chest. They're all right up there with guys from Krypton and thunder gods!

As for the actors, how can you not love Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones (no matter how old he is now)? He was in fine form, Karen Allen had lost some of her spunk but still seemed OK, and I was shocked to find out that I didn't hate Shia LaBeouf like I'd expected to. It's almost impossible for me to say anything bad about Cate Blanchett anytime I see her, and this was no exception. She brought a lot of malicious energy to her Comrade Bad-girl role, and I loved it!

Bottom line for me with this movie was that it probably belongs in the lower ranks of the (still-growing) Indiana Jones oeuvre, along with Temple of Doom. But really, the difference between the top and the bottom, in this case, is probably not much wider than the brim on Indy's trademark hat. And that's just fine by me. But your mileage may vary...

Rating: ***