Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

O Masterpiece
O Excellent
X Good
O OK
O Mediocrity
O Avoid

Review by Jason Pyles / June 18, 2008

I was one of those who waited for hours in line to see “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.” But that was nothing. Like countless others, I have been waiting for years for this one.

The new Indy movie is good, not great. It’s certainly worth any Indiana Jones fan’s attention; but you don’t necessarily need to wait for hours in line. I recommend catching a matinee in a week or two. And if you’re not a die-hard Indy fan, this movie will do as a rental.

To be fair, even if “The Crystal Skull” had achieved cinematic perfection (if there is such a thing), it still probably would have been eclipsed by the mountainous expectations looming over it. After years of hearing that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg rejected numerous scripts, taking care to make sure they had chosen a worthy story, all the while, risking an aging Harrison Ford, I think my hopes were unfairly too high.

The story they settled on (whose secrets I will not spoil) was fiercely protected: For the most part, no advanced press screenings were permitted, which either means a movie sucks or it has some huge secret(s). For this movie, it is the latter. And while I initially felt that the plot of the new film was too far out in left field, I realized that the previous three “Indiana Jones” movies also incorporated fantastical, supernatural elements. So, I’m OK with the bizarreness. Oh, and though the trailers make the movie appear as though it’s an artificial, CGI fest, it normally isn’t as fake-looking as I had feared.

You’ll remember that the first three films were set in the late 1930s, and Indy’s primary enemies were Nazis. “The Crystal Skull” is set in 1957, amid nuclear and Communist paranoia, and his foes are Russian Commies. And, we gather that over the years Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) has continued his archeological adventures.

We catch up with him again as he is forcibly drawn into another quest. A brazen young man named “Mutt” Williams (Shia LaBeouf) is sent by his mother to commission Jones’ help. Their family friend, Harold Oxley (John Hurt), who also happens to be one of Indy’s archeologist colleagues, was in pursuit of a crystal skull and the fabled lost city of gold, El Dorado, until he was kidnapped.

So, Jones and Williams travel to Peru, retracing the missing professor’s steps. Meanwhile, a group of KGB, led by the nefarious Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett), also has an interest in finding the crystal skull and El Dorado. And that’s about all I can describe of the plot without exposing anything juicy.

Karen Allen returns as Marion (Indy’s love interest in “Raiders”), but Sean Connery declined to appear in this film. And the actor who played the beloved Marcus Brody, Denholm Elliott, died with AIDS in 1992. Both absences are handled well.

And speaking of handling things well, Harrison Ford did a fine job reprising his role as the action-adventurer at age 65. In an interview Ford said he has kept his body in shape and wasn’t injured during filming. I wondered if he used a stunt double at times; but according to the Internet Movie Database’s trivia, Ford did his own stunts in this movie, just as he did in the previous three films. There is one stunt involving Ford riding a motorcycle with Shia LaBeouf that is astounding, especially when considering his age.

And for true “Indiana Jones” fans, there are many subtle nods to the older movies, particularly “Raiders” and “Last Crusade.” “The Temple of Doom,” the red-headed step-child of the trilogy, doesn’t really come up. For one small example of the subtlety, keep in mind Indy and his father’s motorcycle journey in “Last Crusade” as you watch the older Indy ride with Mutt Williams. Priceless.

And I worried they’d hammer the old-age jokes into the ground, but the filmmakers practiced some restraint. It is acknowledged several times, but we don’t get the feeling they’re belaboring the point. And at times Ford is slow and wobbly, and at other times he’s rather nimble; it works.

Perhaps I was most disappointed that the humorous interplay between Ford and LaBeouf was relatively sparse. Especially after seeing LaBeouf’s comedic ability in “Transformers,” I thought the duo would deliver something more along the lines of Ford and Connery’s performance in “Last Crusade.”

Still, the humor is there. I’m glad I lived to see this movie. One of my motivators for living a healthy lifestyle is so I can squeeze as many summers of blockbusters into my lifetime as possible. I just know they’re finally going to make that Wonder Woman movie the summer after I die. My picks for the casting of Wonder Woman: Kate Beckinsale, Claire Forlani, or Rachel McAdams.

Directed by Steven Spielberg
Harrison Ford / Shia LaBeouf / Cate Blanchett
Action / Adventure 124 min.
MPAA: PG-13 (for adventure violence and scary images)

U.S. Release Date: May 22, 2008
Copyright 2008: 294