There is a question that you have to wonder walking into Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: why bother? Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was a terrific way to end the series, and it’s title even worked as metaphor. Why not end on a high note? Unfortunately, the question haunts after seeing the movie too.

After Harrison Ford fights Russians and survives an Atomic bomb blast (no, really) he joins Shea LeBeouf on a trek to South America to rescue archaeologist John Hurt that rejoins him with Karen Allen, reprising her role of Marion from Raiders of the Lost Arc. For all the worry about his age, Ford still feels right as Indy. The best parts of the movie are Allen and Ford’s interplay, and I wish there had been more of it. The film is constructed just like the others, where scene of exposition leads to a thrilling set piece up to the conclusion. Nobody makes exposition seem interesting like Harrison Ford, and nobody does set pieces like Steven Spielberg.

There was always more to Indiana Jones though. From the rolling boulder to Indy shooting the swordsmen to “No Ticket“, the Indiana Jones movies are full of iconic images. Just like how Spielberg and George Lucas were a first generation of filmmakers who grew up watching films, today’s filmmakers grew up watching Spielbeg and Lucas. Unfortunately watching “Crystal Skull”, you can’t help thinking that you’ve seen this done better in The X-Files movie, Stargate, or even cheap clones of the Indiana Jones series like Laura Croft: Tomb Raider. Even if it isn’t a bad movie, it isn’t a good Indiana Jones movie.

There’s also the issue of bringing Indiana Jones into the atomic age, both in front of and behind the camera. The opening has Ford fighting Russians in Area 51, only to escape on a prototype rocket. It is a fun sequence, but it somehow feels wrong to have Indy in more modern surroundings. This hampers the film too, which uses the latest computer graphics to deliver some really fake South American jungles. It makes you want to see the opening of Raiders of the Lost Arc again.

Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is not a bad movie, but it won’t remind you of why you loved Indiana Jones twenty years ago. For all of its craft, it never justifies its own existence.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 26th, 2008 at 2:38 pm and is filed under Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.