Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 2 hrs 4 mins
Cast:
- Harrison Ford
- Cate Blanchett
- Karen Allen
- Ray Winstone
- John Hurt
- Jim Broadbent
- Shia LaBeouf
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Review - "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"
Reviewer: Charise Payne
Rating:
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull can be summed up in one word: disappointment. The film has been built up for the last 19 years, and the product didn't come close to the hype. The film is fun, and I am sure it will be a box office success, but for those fans who are hoping for the Indiana Jones of the past, this film will leave you frustrated.
As the film begins, it is now the late 1950s, and the Cold War hysteria has broken out. The Soviets crash into a military base in the Nevada desert, kill everyone there, and release their hostages in the trunk. As the hostages are released, the brown fedora hits the ground, and we all know Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) has arrived. The Soviets, along with their commander and head scientist Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett), are looking for a special box Jones found years before, and they need his help to find it. Jones, of course, can't let the bad guys win, so in traditional Jones fashion, he finds the box, crashes some cars, fights the bad guys, and cracks that whip in an effort to escape.
Jones does get away, but he loses the box in the effort. The box is very special; it contains an alien life-form found in Mexico, and it is magnetic. Spalko is obsessed with the artifact. She believes it has the power to control the mind, and that it can be used to rule the world through mind domination. She has Jones trailed by her goons in order to find out more information about the alien, and she gets lucky.
As Jones gets back to his life as a professor, he gets suspended from his job because the CIA thinks he might be working with the Commies, and the university finds it bad for business to have the CIA in their vicinity. Jones has had enough, and takes a job elsewhere. As he catches a train, he is confronted by a motorcycle-riding greaser with a hair-combing addiction and a lack for following the rules. His name is Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf), and he needs Jones's help to find his father-figure and mother, who have been kidnapped by Spalko and her gang of Commies.
Mutt's surrogate father and Jones's old friend Professor Oxley (John Hurt) leaves a map to Mary, and she sends it to Mutt in a letter telling him to go find Jones, and that he can help him find Oxley and herself. Jones, of course, wants to help because Oxley is his mentor. But Mutt's mother is a different story. Her name is Mary, and even though Mutt says Jones used to know his mother, Indy says he has known a lot of Marys, and that he doesn't remember her. Of course, all of the audience is thinking of Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Only Jones seems surprised when he finally meets her.
Jones and Mutt take the map and use it to decipher the hidden clues left by Oxley. They discover the Crystal Skull in the Amazon, and figure out it needs to be taken back to where it was found. But as soon as they try, the Commies are back, and they have hostages: Oxley and Mary. But Mary turns out to be Marion, and Jones is dumbfounded. His ex-fiancée is back; she is in danger and has issues. Peril ensues, and they are forced to work like a team to get their comrades out of danger, the skull out of the Commies' grimey hands, and once again, save the world from Stalin's world domination plan.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a fun film, but it is not a great film, nor does it equal its predecessors. The special effects are distracting and unrealistic. And just because a monkey is in a tree doesn't mean LaBeouf needs to fly through the trees and become Tarzan.
And although Spielberg and Lucas are great at their jobs, I feel this film falls short of audience's expectations for their work. Audiences have waited 19 years for a great film, not an action film without a solid plot. It took about thirty minutes before the plot became clear, and I still felt it was very week.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is full of classic Indiana Jones moments, and Harrison Ford does a great job reprising his alter ego. But the film doesn't live up to the expectations and desires of its core fans, and as the movie goers left the theater, feelings of disappointment seemed to fill the air. Non-diehards will have a great time, and they will enjoy this new Indiana film. It has some great moments that thrill, and others that keep you on the edge of your seat. Just next time, keep the CGT ground-hogs in the ground and the flying Tarzan out of the trees.
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