Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is unfortunately quite a disappointment. Disappointing to the point of embarrassing for George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, the duo have taken a character of extreme popularity and a trilogy of great admiration and added an additional chapter of unnecessary absurdity. During an early scene, our capable hero survives a nuclear blast by hiding in a refrigerator, which is catapulted from the blast zone with deadly force. This momentarily excessive lack of realism is forgivable because he’s Indiana Jones. But the rest of the film becomes even more ridiculously farfetched and cannot as easily be brushed aside. Indiana Jones is no longer a man of reason, who could be traversing the world right now hunting for lost treasures. He is complete fiction.
It is 1957, and Professor Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is once again in the midst of peril, this time at the hands of Russian radicals led by Stalin’s Austrian psychic scientist Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett). Forcing him to lead them to magnetized remains of some obscure creature in a government warehouse, Indy manages to escape to the safe-haven of a nuclear blast testing zone. Shortly thereafter, he is returned to the comfort of his classroom, to teach the seemingly boring topic of archeology.
Mutt Williams (Shia LeBeouf) catches up with the legendary adventurer to inform him that a colleague, professor Oxley (John Hurt), has been captured by Spalko, and is being pressured to lead the Soviets to the location of El Dorado, the city of gold, where a crystal skull has been stolen. The legend places the city in the Amazon, and claims to grant the retriever of the artifact unimaginable powers. Soon enough, Jones travels across the globe to South America to play a vital role in fulfilling the legend, and making sure to encounter every danger and every adventure imaginable along the way.
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull makes countless references and pays nonstop homage to the original Indiana Jones trilogy, and even brings back familiar characters such as Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen). Indiana can still take a beating (more than any of the previous films), creepy crawling bugs frequently inhabit his locales, tons of comedy relief peppers the nonstop action sequences, and riddles, puzzles and buried treasure abound. Yet for all of its attempts to make this fourth outing a faithful addition to the already resolute Indy saga, too much of it is unfamiliar. Indy is older and noticeably more weathered, but what feels the most inconsistent is his ability to continually achieve more and more outrageous feats. While most of the action scenes are standard high-speed pursuits, his endeavors to brave raging waterfalls, nuclear blasts, and armies of ants, (plus an even more far-fetched conclusion) just doesn’t feel like the flesh and blood Indy we grew accustomed to in the original trilogy.
Everyone’s favorite archaeological adventurer has tackled everything from the Nazis and their steel beasts to booby-trap-filled temples of doom and lost arks of unimaginable power; so what’s left for him to do? Unfortunately the creative minds behind Dr. Jones’s escapades seem to have run out of ideas and reverted to both the ridiculously unbelievable and to creations extremely alien to Indy’s regiment of religious history. The Russians have replaced the Nazis, the outlandish has replaced the reasonable, and the extraterrestrials have replaced Jesus.
MoviePulse
Genre: Action/Adventure and Sequel
Running Time: 2 hrs. 3 min.
Theatrical Release Date: May 22nd, 2008
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for adventure violence and scary images.
Directed By: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Harrison Ford, Shia LeBeouf, Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen, John Hurt, Ray Winstone and Jim Broadbent
SCORE = 5/10
I have not read this review, but CLEARLY it has to be WRONG. 🙂
I prefer to believe the review that was here a few days ago.
Um…the first movie had the Angel of Death melting the faces off Nazis. I’m pretty sure a level of pulp absurdity was in the DNA of the franchise from day one.
Also, “religious archeology” doesn’t just cover Judeo-Christian concepts, so if Nazis could run around looking for supernatural objects to gain power, why not Russians?
Sorry, MoviePulse, can’t agree with this one…at least not on those counts.
Agreed – “religious archeology” does not and should not represent only the Judeo-Christian belief system, because frankly, it is one of the newer systems of faith.
The Indiana Jones stories have always been dipped in fantasy . . . or did you really believe there was an ancient knight kept alive by the power of the Grail?
The movie was a fun throwback to the Indy franchise and LeBeouf shows promise to fill Indy’s shoes on his own.
I agree w/ the other commentators. I went and saw it this morning and would give it a solid 7.5 out of 10. Was it as good as Raiders? No. But I would consider it better than Temple of Doom and about on par with the Last Crusade. There were a few scenes where the movie kind of grated against me, but for the most part it was a fun romp through the kind of adventure we have grown to love with Indiana Jones. I will say that while in the theater when aliens/whatever first came into play I was kind of disappointed, but it turned out ok.
I hate to surprise anyone, but the entire franchise has focused on the supernatural and this installment is no different.
ummm, there is not a single Indiana Jones film that is not completely far fetched and 100% fiction.
this review has it wrong.
Just caught the movie in Singapore with my 2 girls, 8 and 12. They found it fun and funny, like I did with Indy 1.
Ford had some fun too with a “nucular” Bush-style. I just googled. Seems nobody got that yet.
TTH,
I noticed the nucular thing when he said it, as well.
To the rest,
I really liked it. Rob speaks true, it isn’t Raiders, Or Last Crusade, but it’s better the Temple of Doom. My only real complaint was the CGI prarie dogs and monkeys. Why? That’s Lucas’ influence, right there.
Seriously, what was with the prairie dogs and monkeys? That has got to be typical Lucas poor judgment.
Anyway, the story, like all the others in the franchise, is absurd. Indiana Jones is pulp in the style of the old serials, and it is spot on at being that.
However, as for Shia LeBeuf taking Harrison Ford’s place, I cringed during the final scene when Mutt was contemplating putting on the hat and cheered when Indy yanked it out of his hands.
OK, here’s the thing:
I don’t care what anyone, especially a film critic, thinks.
It’s Indiana Jones. It’s Harrison Ford with a bullwhip. And I’m gonna see it. And I’m gonna have me a big ol’ tub of popcorn (and some smuggled in sweets), too.
And so are a lot of other people.
And that’s all that really matters.
I’m just sayin’.
I saw it, and I left just slightly disappointed. It felt a little bit rushed to me.
Still, it was nice to see Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones one more time. I’m also glad about the ending which wrapped things up on a positive note.
Should they make an Indy 5? No. And I say that because I like Indiana Jones. I would rather have the series end here than risk having it degenerate further.
I saw it and what a disappointment it was! It had lost the spark of the previous films and has gone of what was believable to complete nonsense, He is next to a nuclear bomb and he comes out without a scratch, and somehow aliens come in to it. 2/5