Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, 4 stars
Saw the much-debated fourth installment of the aging franchise on sunday. While Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is not as great as the best parts of the series, it is far from disaster (and absolutely not comparable to the travesty known as Phantom Menace).
Indeed, even though both Henry Jones Jr. and Harrison Ford are pushing seventy, the movie is hardly affected. Quite the reverse, aging is treated gracefully and its implications surface as a major plot element. Acting-wise the movie works well - Karen Allen returns as Marion Ravenwood from Raiders of the Lost Ark (yeah, the booze-swilling chick from Himalayas), Shia LeBouf continues to be thoroughly non-annoying (even though his fifties greaser had gigantic potential for failure).
The film begins with a sly wink to the watchers, but never descends into the realm of continuous in-jokes. References to previous movies and absent friends are mostly treated with care. Though I wonder why the role of Harold Oxley was crafted, when Abner Ravenwood would have been a perfect fit for the plot device.
Some of the scenes are criminally under-developed, there’s quite a bit of repetition in the script, and the Tarzan-moment is a very jarring interruption that just fails to work on any level. But the cool moments far outweigh any suboptimal design: rocket sled! army ants! 1950s setting! Cate Blanchett with a sabre! jungle chase! travel plotted on map! skulking through caves and ruins! And as an added bonus CGI imagery is pleasantly sparsely used. Though the ending has already been done by Spielberg much much better thirty years ago.
Originally I had very mixed feelings about this movie. On one hand it was thrilling to see the original team get back to action nineteen years after the previous film. On the other I was dreading the Star Trek effect - it’s not farfetched to think that only odd-numbered Indy films are good, and the others merely fillers. But the fears were proven wrong - despite some missteps this is a good film that may very well service as the capstone for the entire saga. Or it may not, as the box office receipts have been strong. If it isn’t, the fifth part will not be nineteen years off from today.
And I seriously hope that the guy sitting one row back buys soft candy the next time he sees a movie. The mind-shattering crunch of innocent potato chips continued throughout the film, and managed to distract during the few lulls in the action.
Jusa:
I’m NOT going to read this review, cause I havent seen the film yet.
–
Bloody hell – I just read it.
Let’s take care of the potato-chip-cruncher next time.
May 29, 2008, 20:47lavonardo:
The review is as spoiler-free as they come. I *hate* it when hesari and the like end up giving away the plot.
May 29, 2008, 22:13