While I'm still wending my way through all the other entries of the Indiana Jones franchise, I did make time before the baby arrives to catch the 4th installment that just opened on the big screen.
You'll get two reviews: a short one and a long one.
Here's the short one:
If you liked the other three movies, there's no real reason to not like this one as well.
Now here's the long one...with spoilers and other random nitpicks:
While George Lucas may have destroyed any credibility and trust with his fans when it came to the Star Wars films, its a bit trickier for him to do that with Indiana Jones for a variety of reasons. First, he's not entirely surrounded by "yes" men as director Steven Spielberg and actor Harrison Ford are strong-minded individuals with their own opinions and input. Secondly, unlike the Star Wars films where the six films (soon to be seven) tell a larger story with interconnecting plots, this franchise is a throwback to the old 1930s serials where an adventurer (here named Indiana Jones) has an adventure in one film and then has a different adventure in the next (sometimes with the same supporting cast, sometimes with a new one).
Not sure what people were expecting after a 19 year gap between The Last Crusade and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I was expecting another Indiana Jones adventure/quest with lots of action (okay...some action), some decent fun villains (check), some neat supporting characters (check) and perhaps a wink and a nod to previous adventures (check). It wasn't too much to ask for and that's pretty much what we got.
The plot involves the Soviet Army (the film takes place in 1957) trying to track down a Crystal Skull that when returned to the legendary city of El Dorado will give someone unlimted power. Of course, they try and force the greatest adventurer/archeologist to help them along the way. That's pretty much the "meat" of the story. The potatoes involves a kid named Mutt Williams who is trying to help save both his mother and a close friend from the Russians as the close friend is an old colleague of Dr. Jones' and the mother is none other than Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen returning from Raiders of the Lost Ark or as its now "officially" called Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark by Herr Lucas).
While the film is fun, it is not as fun as The Last Crusade and it is not as tight or as exciting as that film and Raiders (which means on the Fenster scale it winds up being the 3rd best film in the franchise). The action sequences harken back to the three older films which were made at a time when action sequences were less frenetic (for a better example of this change check out the differences between Die Hard and Live Free or Die Hard). Here they seem quaint (not in a bad way, just an odd way). The stunts tend to fall more towards Temple of Doom in their silliness (hey...if Indy can survive a two mile drop in a rubber life raft onto a mountain and then slide all the way down the mountain on said raft, surely he and his group can survive not one, not two, but THREE plunges over waterfalls in a jungle cruiser made of metal -- surviving a nuclear explosion in a lead lined refrigerator that gets thrown a few miles by the blast is a bit much howvere). There is also a bit too much CGI "enhancement" for my tastes. I blame this completely on Lucas of course. Its distracting to be watching a scene and between shots your brain is going "here they're on location" and "now they're in a studio" (also in spite of Ford supposedly doing his own stunts I could swear his stunt double's wig was gonna fly off during the motorcycle chase around Yale).
The subtle nods to both Marcus Brody and Henry Jones Sr. are nice touches as is the story of how Indy met Poncho Villa (check out The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles/The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones for that one). The "gag" with Marcus Brody's statue is a bit much as is the broken crate at Area 51 revealing the Ark of the Covenant (too much wink, not enough nod).
The film really crackles once Indy and Mutt get to Marion and Oxley (John Hurt). Well, it crackels with Marion (as Hurt spends much of his screen time spouting mystical gibberish). The jungle action scene, while exciting, is a bit too familiar feeling (Return of the Jedi) and the "Mutt straddling two jeeps so he can get a cactus in the crotch" gag is older than the alien skulss they're dealing with.
Ooops. Did I just say "alien skulls"? Yes I did. And that's the part I'm not sure about here. The end of the film goes out of the realm of mystical adventure and into the real of sci-fi (and feels a bit like excerpts from a Close Encounters prequel in the process -- in fact...thinking back on it, the whole film has a Close Encounters vibe as various people are getting that calling to go to a large rock tower and witness the arrival, or in this case departure, of a space ship). The whole thing kind of moves the character into a realm I'm not sure I want to see him head towards. Again, its not a bad thing per se, just something I'm not sure how I feel about.
So in the end, as I said in the short review, if you liked the other films, you should like this one as well. But don't go in expecting the 21st Century equivalent of Raiders of the Lost Ark. It's fun, but its not groundbreaking filmmaking.
I will eventually finish up my look at the rest of the franchise, but it may be a while. Duncan is due in 9 days and I'm not sure when I'll get to viewing the rest of the films (I'm just over halfway through the 2nd box set of The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones). But it will get done...
Meanwhile, this week I plan on finishing my look at the new fall TV season (before we get that new baby smell).
Be seeing you.
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