Movie Review: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Movie Review: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
I am a big Indiana Jones fan, so I have been waiting for this movie ever since they started filming it. Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of my all time favorite movies, so I was really excited when I heard that Karen Allen was reprising her role as Marion Ravenwood for this final(?) installment of the adventures of Henry Jones, Jr.
The important thing to remember when going in to see Crystal Skull is that you really can’t compare it to the original trilogy, nor is it fair to. Many things have changed since 1989’s Last Crusade, including the way films are made—which brings me to one of my first criticisms of the film, its occasional over-use of computer generated effects.
Yes, I’m aware that Indy movies are meant to be over the top pulp-fiction-comic-booky fun, but I really think there is such a thing as too much special effects when it comes to using computers. Thankfully, this did not plague the entire film, only in a few spots was this apparent—and even then it was towards the end when you’d expect nothing less from a Spielberg/Lucas film. But there were a few times where I found myself thinking, “OK, this is a little much.” I can’t really go into too much detail without giving away spoilers, but the final climatic/big special effect money shot really reeked of overkill.
Next is the subject matter/theme of this chapter.
Lost cities? Yes, please!
Haunted graveyards? Awesome!
Stolen treasure? Woo-hoo!
Aliens? Huh?
Physic powers? Uh…what?
While I was originally intrigued by the idea of Indy visiting Area 51 and being connected to the Roswell Crash, I decided that Indiana Jones and aliens just don’t mix. Save that stuff for X-Files. It was just too left field for an Indiana Jones movie. There are plenty of other cool legendary artifacts they could of have centered the film around. What about the Spear of Destiny? The plot could have been that Hitler originally had it, lost it, and the Russians are trying to find it and Indy gets mixed up in the whole mess (and he’d have to fight the Nazis and the Russians! How crazy would that have been?)
Or what about something with Atlantis? I could go on and on. Don’t get me wrong: I enjoyed the movie, it was a lot of fun. I just didn’t like all the alien stuff.
Harrison Ford did a decent job reprising the role and once they finally got the ‘Oh man, I’m too old for this’ jokes out of the way, I found myself forgetting how old he really is. Some of his stunts and action scenes could have easily been from any of the older Indy movies—he’s still got it.
One thing that didn’t seem to stand the test of time was the chemistry between Harrison Ford and Karen Allen. I don’t know if it was just the script or what, but some of their lines between each other seemed forced or lacked any kind of spark. But they had a few exchanges that were pretty darn good, usually when they were fighting with each other.
I’m still not sold on Shia LaBeouf as the big blockbuster star that Spielberg seems to think he is. Sure he was ok, and he had a few good scenes but overall I wasn’t that impressed with him or his character, Mutt Williams.
Oh and Jim Broadbent was horribly underused. He was a great choice as a replacement for Marcus, but I would of liked to see a little more of him. And I got sick of all the Red Scare stuff they kept throwing at us. Yes, I get it. It takes place in the 1950s and that was going on, and the bad guys are Russians in the film, but c’mon.
I also wasn’t a fan of some of the cinematography and lighting. Some of the film had this ‘made for TV reunion movie’ look/feel to it; I felt that lighting could have been way more interesting at times. There were parts where it was very flat and boring.
What I DID like: the casual references to what Indy has been up to for the past 20 years. Very neat, especially what he did during World War II (“Colonel Jones…”). John Hurt was great and Cate Blanchett was convincing in her role. The chase scene in the jungle with the trucks and such was thrilling to watch on the big screen, I loved that part. It was wonderfully over the top.
Thankfully, this film did not suffer from the same fate as Episode I: The Phantom Menace, it captured some of the charm of the original and is fun to watch (which can be chalked up to the fact that Spielberg has been making movies for the past 20 years, unlike Lucas who had a very long hiatus between Howard the Duck and Phantom Menace).
Despite its faults, this is a film worth seeing in the theater and a fun way to spend two hours. My expectations weren’t set too high going in to this, so thankfully I wasn’t too disappointed.
And to be honest, I can’t wait to see it again.
I am a big Indiana Jones fan, so I have been waiting for this movie ever since they started filming it. Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of my all time favorite movies, so I was really excited when I heard that Karen Allen was reprising her role as Marion Ravenwood for this final(?) installment of the adventures of Henry Jones, Jr.
The important thing to remember when going in to see Crystal Skull is that you really can’t compare it to the original trilogy, nor is it fair to. Many things have changed since 1989’s Last Crusade, including the way films are made—which brings me to one of my first criticisms of the film, its occasional over-use of computer generated effects.
Yes, I’m aware that Indy movies are meant to be over the top pulp-fiction-comic-booky fun, but I really think there is such a thing as too much special effects when it comes to using computers. Thankfully, this did not plague the entire film, only in a few spots was this apparent—and even then it was towards the end when you’d expect nothing less from a Spielberg/Lucas film. But there were a few times where I found myself thinking, “OK, this is a little much.” I can’t really go into too much detail without giving away spoilers, but the final climatic/big special effect money shot really reeked of overkill.
Next is the subject matter/theme of this chapter.
Lost cities? Yes, please!
Haunted graveyards? Awesome!
Stolen treasure? Woo-hoo!
Aliens? Huh?
Physic powers? Uh…what?
While I was originally intrigued by the idea of Indy visiting Area 51 and being connected to the Roswell Crash, I decided that Indiana Jones and aliens just don’t mix. Save that stuff for X-Files. It was just too left field for an Indiana Jones movie. There are plenty of other cool legendary artifacts they could of have centered the film around. What about the Spear of Destiny? The plot could have been that Hitler originally had it, lost it, and the Russians are trying to find it and Indy gets mixed up in the whole mess (and he’d have to fight the Nazis and the Russians! How crazy would that have been?)
Or what about something with Atlantis? I could go on and on. Don’t get me wrong: I enjoyed the movie, it was a lot of fun. I just didn’t like all the alien stuff.
Harrison Ford did a decent job reprising the role and once they finally got the ‘Oh man, I’m too old for this’ jokes out of the way, I found myself forgetting how old he really is. Some of his stunts and action scenes could have easily been from any of the older Indy movies—he’s still got it.
One thing that didn’t seem to stand the test of time was the chemistry between Harrison Ford and Karen Allen. I don’t know if it was just the script or what, but some of their lines between each other seemed forced or lacked any kind of spark. But they had a few exchanges that were pretty darn good, usually when they were fighting with each other.
I’m still not sold on Shia LaBeouf as the big blockbuster star that Spielberg seems to think he is. Sure he was ok, and he had a few good scenes but overall I wasn’t that impressed with him or his character, Mutt Williams.
Oh and Jim Broadbent was horribly underused. He was a great choice as a replacement for Marcus, but I would of liked to see a little more of him. And I got sick of all the Red Scare stuff they kept throwing at us. Yes, I get it. It takes place in the 1950s and that was going on, and the bad guys are Russians in the film, but c’mon.
I also wasn’t a fan of some of the cinematography and lighting. Some of the film had this ‘made for TV reunion movie’ look/feel to it; I felt that lighting could have been way more interesting at times. There were parts where it was very flat and boring.
What I DID like: the casual references to what Indy has been up to for the past 20 years. Very neat, especially what he did during World War II (“Colonel Jones…”). John Hurt was great and Cate Blanchett was convincing in her role. The chase scene in the jungle with the trucks and such was thrilling to watch on the big screen, I loved that part. It was wonderfully over the top.
Thankfully, this film did not suffer from the same fate as Episode I: The Phantom Menace, it captured some of the charm of the original and is fun to watch (which can be chalked up to the fact that Spielberg has been making movies for the past 20 years, unlike Lucas who had a very long hiatus between Howard the Duck and Phantom Menace).
Despite its faults, this is a film worth seeing in the theater and a fun way to spend two hours. My expectations weren’t set too high going in to this, so thankfully I wasn’t too disappointed.
And to be honest, I can’t wait to see it again.