Review of INDIANA JONES AND KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL

May 22, 2008

*************SPOILER ALERT

We were really very excited to watch this movie, the 4th installment of the revered Indiana Jones franchise, 19 years after I.J and the Last Crusade. It is the first day of showing here and we caught it right away.

It is everything it was. The action, the thrills, the humor, they were all there. Of course, the great theme music was there. As well as the great action photography and editing. That exciting car chase in the jungle with the crystal skull changing hands was very well shot. Although the attack of the giant fire ants seems to derive from "The Mummy", I liked the way it was executed. It also brought back eerie terrifying childhood memories of "The Helstrom Chronicle."

Harrison Ford is obviously much older, yet his charisma as Indiana Jones is quite intact. I did not initially like the news that he will have a sidekick in the person of Shia LaBeouf, but it was actually ok. I would like to watch the scene where they first meet again though. I did not get it at all why they met, which of course was how the whole adventure with crystal skull began.

Now my problems with it. First, it is so faithful to the series, that it actually felt like you have seen it all before. I think the main problem of the whole movie is the story. I found the whole angle involving aliens (yes, that's right) to be preposterous. It just gives the whole film a rather thick layer of cheese. 

In addition to that, old Indy was quite the superman in this film. Too unbelievable even for a movie where we are asked to suspend our disbelief. I can accept all those narrow escapes in the jungle and the pyramids, as these have been seen before in the previous films. However, surviving a nuclear blast by hiding in a refrigerator is stretching reality too much. It was a lame attempt to be funny in my opinion.

These quibbles aside however it was still a very entertaining film. Not a waste of time at all. They better do better on the next film, especially if there will be a transferring of the hat (as suggested in the final scene). I do not want this film to end up as "the Phantom Menace" was for the "Star Wars" franchise.