Well, by the end of the weekend everyone and their dog Indy will have seen Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. So, instead of a full blown review, here are a few thoughts that whipped through my head as the adventures of our favorite archaeologist unraveled on-screen:
- Indy is back. The second the hat is pulled from the stinkin' commie truck, Harrison Ford settles down into his wise-cracking hero character with the greatest of ease. At first, I felt that Ford felt a little forced on screen, but on further examination it was just my sub-conscious fighting the fact that there was a new Indiana Jones film on screen. No one ever thought it could happen
-Shia Laboeuf is a fun sidekick, but then again, I always liked the guy so my opinion is iffy at best. If you’re worried about his quirks: He never goes “NO! NO! NO!” while running away from the big giant things chasing after him. In fact, he performs his own little action scene with guts and screen presence to spare.
-The action, when it pops on screen, is creative and multi-layered. We’re talking about "the last half hour of Temple of Doom” multi-layering. I had a grin on my face a mile wide as the heroes went from a car chase, to a fistfight, to a car-top sword-fight and finally to a fistfight surrounded by giant man eating ants. Fear of Indy becoming too “Kinetic” are unfounded because the whole thing reeks of analog. And other then the fridge bit (which I liked for it’s out-of-nowhere-ness) I didn’t find Indy had superman syndrome at all.
-This bad boy needed cutting. It doesn’t have enough momentum to sustain its two hour running time and one scene in particular drags on and on with unnecessary exposition about the skull in question. You could make the case that Raiders had the same issue, but then you’d be nothing more than a nitpicking dweeb. Spielberg needs a refresher on trimming up the fat (Who am I kidding? That’s been his downfall for the last 15 years) And there should have been one more "big" action beat to quicken things up, but I say that for every movie I see. The sheer length of the scenes probably equal three times any flick you’ll see in your local multiplexes this summer.
- The ending is a wet paper bag exploding in millions of dollars worth of CGI. Indy stops being a participant and takes a step back to let the Deus Ex Machina do its work. They did the same thing in Raiders, but at least that seemed earned and had a payoff. Here, nothing. Just a lot of computer effects swirling around that signify nothing. The epilogue is touching enough, but the bad taste in my mouth still stuck as the end credits rolled.
My least favorite sequel, but one that still fight nicely in the Indy canon, Crystal Skull doesn’t disappoint nor does it blow you away. It’s an Indy film that doesn’t completely molest your child memories and for that, I’m eternally thankful.
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