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INDIANA JONES and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
- Reviewed May 22, 2008

First of all I have to say I apoligize for not reviewing movies in a while... its been a long time. I have seen lots of movies, but I just got lazy writing.... I guess.

Now for my review.....
Few movies have left a lasting impression on the general public. Even fewer have characters that are iconic. In 1981, Raiders of the Lost Ark did both. It not only spawned sequels, but many "Indy-type" clone movies popped up in the years following.

Even though I love all the Indiana Jones movies, to me Raiders is the best. Its the most believeable, if I can use that term about a guy who nearly gets killed every 10 minutes in the film and uses a whip to get himself out of many jams. Raiders is the perfect adventure movie. The bad guys are scary evil. The perils are nailbiting. The action is very real. Even the humor is perfectly done. And come on!...Harrison Ford is just flat out cooll. Raiders is a great movie... have I said that?

The sequels though, have always been... well... something was always missing. What was it? I mean, it had Harrison Ford . It had action. It had bad guys. But they were just different. Its like, if Indiana Jones was a real person, the other movies had Indy as a caricature of him. The sequels were always a little too goofy for me. Don't get me wrong... I still enjoyed them, just not in the same way. Raiders made me want to be Indiana Jones, the sequels made me just want to watch.

That all being said, the big question I know I will be asked a few million times in the next few weeks is "What did you think of the new Indiana Jones movie?"

My first answer would be "It was fun".
Second, I loved the action and the FX! (Of course, huh?)
Thirdly, its just great seeing Indy in new adventures. Who woulda thought we would again?

Now for the dreaded question: "Was it as good as the others?"
Well.... Now I have to ask some questions.
What do you mean when you ask that?
What do you like about the Indiana Jones movies?
Is it the adventure? Is it the action? Is it the humor?

My quick answer to the dreaded question?
NO... its not as good as the others...and the "others" to me is always judged against the original, Raiders. There is no way to recapture the feelings I had when I first saw that movie.
But... to some like my wife, Kim, she loves The Last Crusade. She loves the humor and the relationship issues between Sean Connery and Harrison Ford. So, could it be compared to that? YES... its very similar. It has humor, relationship issues...and of course, not as believeable action as Raiders did.

But Come on Todd, what did you really think of the movie?

LIKES?
Well... again. First and foremost, I thought it was alot of fun. And actually scary in some places.
The opening sequence, reminiscent of American Graffiti, was a cool way of saying this is not were we left off...its 20 some years later. Elvis music played while teenagers race across the desert in a convertible. Cool.
Its probably no spoiler to say the movie starts off in Reno, Nevada. Area 51 to be exact. You know, where space aliens crashed well... er... around that time. So, yes... the movie deals with that subject. Not like Yoda, or ET or even Close Encounters, but... well... I can't say too much here. But the idea of the whole Area 51 thing I felt was a cool mystery to build off of.

Getting away from that for a moment, there is some pretty cool action bits. I especially liked the motorcycle chase scene. Very cool and not too far fetched. Again, did you see I wrote not TOO far fetched.

And hey, it was just great to see Indiana Jone again, along with Marion and the great Indiana Jones theme playing thru-out. I felt Shia LaBeouf was really good in the film too. There are also some great nods to the past films

All in all, a very fun time.

DISLIKES?
One thing that dawned on me this morning, as we get closer and closer and closer to the object Indiana is pursuing, we get more and more CG effects. Which actually Indiana Jones never encountered before. Not even Han Solo, Indy's alter ego, ever saw CG effects? So this movie could of been called, "Indiana Jones and the Crazy Computer FX". The movie went from being your post 20th Century old fashioned action to the new millennium's CGI. The film moved right into becoming a close relative to the Mummy franchise. As much as I like technology and special FX, it almost felt like the FX didn't work well with the actors. Going off a billion (it seemed) cliffs, crumbling boulders that never make our heroes even flinch, took something away from the daring character of Indy... specifically Harrison Ford, who turns 66 next month. (Which... looked old. I mean, I know, I know, he IS, but I thought he was not going to look so old. Sadly, he did.) So, as much as I know a 60 year old dude can't really do the action type stunts he did when he was 40-something, its like the FX didn't make him have to work that hard.

And then, the ending... well... Indy films have always been about some amazing somethings happening at the conclusion. The rope bridge in Doom, the traps in Crusade and of course the great Ark ghosts / face melting in Raiders. This movie... well... to quote my son, "The ending wasn't an Indiana Jones movie". And I couldn't totally agree with him. It became The Mummy 2. Crazy, crazy, what the heck is that all about, type ending. I wasn't amazed... I was actually a little embarrassed. Theres actually one shot with all these skeletons melding together to become... well... er... I can't say. I didn't really like that too much.


OVERALL
But... hey... overall the movie is FUN. And I will buy the DVD, even maybe see it again in the theater.
I went into the movie really wanting to enjoy this movie, but knew I would be disappointed somehow. I mean, it wasn't going to be Raiders, I knew that. I would settle for Crusade, but I didn't want it to be the Mummy. It was somewhere in between I would say.


RECOMMEND?
If you can go see the movie after reading all this, and overlook the negative parts, I think you will enjoy it.
If you are expecting another Raiders?... um, stay home... actually don't even rent it later.


COMMENTS: todd@toddstanton.net
By Todd Stanton