After a 19-year absence, Indiana Jones — with his familiar fedora, bull whip and John Williams theme — is back, though not quite better than ever.I've been a huge Indiana Jones fan since I saw "The Last Crusade" when I was about eight years old (though I have to question my mom's judgment in not covering my eyes during the "He chose poorly" rapid aging death of one of the bad guys). I recently watched (and gently forced my girlfriend Erica to watch) the first three movies in the trilogy, laughed at the aforementioned death scene and got excited about Indiana Jones all over again.
And I have to say the new film is mostly a pleasant mixed bag (I say "pleasant" because "mixed bag" usually has a negative connotation).
Art wisely imitates life as the new film picks up nearly 20 years following the events of "The Last Crusade." In 1957, Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones Jr. (Harrison Ford) becomes involved in a Soviet plan — led by a severe and not-so-vaguely dominatrix-looking Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett) to find the mysterious artifact du jour, the titular crystal skulls.
On his journey, Indiana teams up with a young greaser named Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf) and the two travel to South America to save Mutt's mother and find the skulls.
Let's get right to what I liked about it. At age 65, Harrison Ford is still a completely credible action hero. Except for his opening scene where I felt he was "acting" like Indiana Jones (or even John Wayne) a bit too much, Ford comfortably and easily slipped back into the persona of, arguably, his most beloved character. The fit was good enough to almost make me forget he probably mostly agreed to be in this movie because he hasn't had a hit since "What Lies Beneath" in 2000.
The rest of the cast is a bit more up and down. I LOVE the way Cate Blanchett completely immersed herself in her character. I admire that she appears to throw herself into a silly movie like this as much as she does something like "I'm Not There." However, I felt her character could've been just a little more badass. Meanwhile, Shia LaBeouf compensates for the fact that he's totally miscast (really? Shia LaBeouf as a greaser?) because he's a good actor and has solid chemistry with Ford. Finally, I personally got a kick out of seeing Neil Flynn (the Janitor from "Scrubs") show up out of nowhere. As an FBI agent!
As a fan, I also appreciated the nods to the previous movies. There were subtle touches, but I especially enjoyed the more overt tributes to the late Denholm Elliot (clumsy dean Marcus Brody) and the apparently-retired Sean Connery (Henry Jones Sr.).
Still, the main event is the direction of Steven Spielberg who, probably more than any other director, still has the ability to stage exciting and clever action sequences. An early sequence involving an atomic bomb explosion is impressive and a motorcycle chase with Ford and LaBeouf is funny and exciting. Of course, it turns out to be an appetizer for a show-stopping jungle chase involving a couple of jeeps, waterfalls and murderous ants (yeah, you read that right), though I could've done without Mutt's silly Tarzan moment.
Though Spielberg and co-creator George Lucas smartly ditched the Nazis and set the film in the 1950s with appropriate and appropriate storyline antagonists (Cold War Russians), I found this to be, by far, the least engaging of the Indiana Jones movies plot-wise. I just didn't care about the Crystal Skulls and, to be honest, I couldn't really follow what was going on every time Indy stopped to explain it to us (though it's possible that could be a result of me spacing out).
Most importantly, I don't really feel like this movie really brought anything new to the table. Of course, it's perfectly fine if Spielberg, Ford and company are perfectly content with taking a victory lap (and making a TON of cash in the process). Still, when this group (ESPECIALLY Spielberg) makes a movie, I tend to expect a little more than a glorified reunion.
To be perfectly honest, I didn't even like this movie as much as I liked another "part four" from a long-dormant franchise — "Live Free or Die Hard." Yeah, I know it's a ridiculous movie and people can (legitimately) say it's not a "real" Die Hard movie with its "jet planes vs. trucks" and PG-13 rating, but at least it took chances.
Though I like that the movie didn't simply try to be a retread of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (which was sort of the case with "The Last Crusade") and tried to go in a slightly different direction (though not as wildly different as "Temple of Doom"), "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" ultimately feels like a solid, but safe effort.
Then again, I guess we should just be glad they didn't TOTALLY screw it up.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull...C+
2 comments:
this whole time i thought the kid's name was 'mudd' instead of 'mutt.' thanks for clearing that up.
Well it's not like I have great hearing or anything (it's certainly not as good as yours). I just go to IMDb to try to spell actors' and characters' names as accurately as I can.
Also, in "The Last Crusade" we found out that Indiana Jones' name was really Henry Jones Jr. and he'd named himself "Indiana" after the family's dog. In "Skull" we meet this kid who'd named himself "Mutt". So you see what they did there.
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