Featured Review: INDIANA JONES 4

INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL



Starring- Harrison Ford, Shia LaBeouf, Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen, Ray Winstone, John Hurt, Jim Broadbent



Directed by Steven Spielberg



Grade: B+



"For an old guy, you ain't bad in a fight."

It's been 19 years since Indiana's last adventure (1989's Last Crusade), and several daunting questions immediately precede his new one. Can Steven Spielberg reasonably recreate a new adventure within the franchise's timeline, and not pollute his vintage trilogy? Can Harrison Ford, at age 65, even look the part of an archaeologist facing death around every corner? Will LucasFilm run it into ground with overladen special effects?

Many producers have tried to dust off the old chestnuts of storied franchises only to see them get disgraced. Remakes aside, Lucas' Star Wars prequels are a glaring example. Thankfully, Crystal Skull does succeed more often than not. Spielberg does a great job reliving the fun adventure feel of the 1980's filmmaking, at least in the first half, and some genuinely set action pieces make Crystal Skull at least feel a part of the past series, if only it's newer, spoiled little brother.

In the 4th installment we find Jones (Ford) in 1957, quite a few years after The Last Crusade, caught in the middle of a siege of Area 51 by Communist Russians, led by Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett). Spalko is after some alien contents that Jones helped study 10 years prior in Roswell. From there, he gets tangled with the FBI, and eventually is found by Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf), a former student of a colleague named Oxley (John Hurt) who went missing. This leads the pair to Peru in search of the titular Crystal Skull and Oxley, and naturally, it has something to do with what Spalko is involved with.

The big climax towards the end gets kind of strange and otherworldly, somewhere along the lines of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Contact, or at worst, the end of Mission To Mars. It felt kind of off for an Indiana Jones picture. But coming from two guys who've made countless sci-fi movies, I guess there's license for them to include it in their 'grand epic fantasy' of film.

Ford surprisingly is quite spry, and really hasn't lost much of his former luster. Obviously he's not doing the stunt double scenes, but Ford brings enough emphasis into Indy at this stage to achieve that 'world weary older man that can still kick it' routine. Blanchett almost disappears into her role as the villainess Irina Spalko, and that makes her that much better.

It's hard to judge LaBeouf without biases. On one hand he isn't nearly as recklessly immature as we've come to expect from his well hyped characters in Transformers and Disturbia. But there are elements about him and Mutt Williams that screams "make me a franchise!".

There tends to be quite a bit of cheesiness involved with the effects, but for a franchise with a lineage from the days of minimal computer involvement, it actually kind of adds to the charm. So LaBeouf's legs looks like it's made of Stretch Armstrong rubber during a critical action scene. So one overhead set piece is clearly seen as a scale model. So the CGI backgrounds are almost as fake as Speed Racer's.

So what? The Indiana Jones series has never been more than a movie's movie. The ultimate in action adventure comedy entertainment. Naturally there will be people who remember the first films in theatres who will complain about the authenticity of movie, but it's all rooted in nostalgia.

In the end, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, with it's impossibly long title, wouldn't be much more than a page out of the Mummy or National Treasure series without the seminal character, director, and score by John Williams. But it doesn't choke on it's own hype either. Overall it's a fun ride into the past (both thematically and real life) if one wants it to be.