Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull User Reviews

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Indiana Jones is a character that we love. There is no other way around it. We see the silouette of him in the hat, and we know who it is. He exists in his own universe with his own set of rules. The key rule to this universe is that we are merely onlookers. We watch as extraordinary things take place all around this rather normal person. We are part of the wild chases, the unlikely situations, and the over the top abilities of these artifact that he is always getting dragged into pursuing.

Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is no exception to this. To call it over the top would be to under mind the whole series. While the alien aspect is a bit of a reach, it is no further of a reach than a man pulling the heart out of the chest of a living human or a thousand year old knight. Over the top, however, seems to be the biggest gripe about the film. This film suffers from having too much expected of it. This makes it hard for the general audience to appreciate that it is its own entity.

From the start of the film, we are shown why we love these movies. They are fun while still having a degree of seriousness to it all. The opening sequence with the military convoy being raced by the hot rod symbolized what it is to watch these movies.

The movie offers an interesting look at several of the myths and legends of our world. Of course, there are the thirteen crystal skulls. These artifacts baffle us in the modern era, much like the Ark does. Using this uncertain touch to its advantage, the movie makes up its own rules around the skulls. What they are, what they do, and where they came from is the basis of the plot for the movie.

The plot though, is not why we watch. No, we watch to see Indy get caught up in some crazy adventure. Crystal Skull does just that. Indy has to trek to South America in search of an old friend, an old flame, and this heavily sought after item.

Things are different this time around. Instead of the paper villains that were the Nazi's of Saturday matinée serials, we have the Russians of a post World War II era. They serve the same purpose. To be intimidating, pushy, but overall just fall down whenever our hero does much of anything.

They are lead by a very evil and skilled femme fatal Colonel Doctor Irina Spalko. She seems to have a thirst for knowledge and a touch of psionic power. The later is never really explored and could probably have been left out all together, though it adds a neat little touch to her character. She is driven, highly skilled, and often times is only seen as bad because of the means to which she goes.

This wouldn't be an Indiana Jones film without a chase sequence, which this movie has plenty. It has one rather fun one though. It features three vehicles and ten characters, all of which drive at some point, a sword fight between vehicles, a Tarzan moment, and lots of car jumping for about thirty minutes. Yes, you read that right. It was probably the most fun moment in the entire movie.

There are only a few real blemishes to the movie. One of them is that seems to be lacking the spark of dialog that made the others so great. Sure, it picks up in the middle after a not so surprising twist. It tappers off shortly after this though, and goes back to what I expect from a David Koepp screenplay.

The other is the over abundance of computer effects used in the movie. The original films avoided added in special effects. If it could be done on camera, do it on camera. This made the movies feel more like what they were based off of, as well as give us that touch to reality that grounds the movies. The sense of reality is all but gone in most of the movie. It does lead to a spectacular scene where Jones survives a nuclear blast from practically ground zero.

My last line states most of what this movie was about. Jones walking away from an atomic blast was a hat tip to the fans. A cementing of the fact that Jones can not and will never die, even after Ford passes from the mortal realm. These movies brought back the action adventure to the mainstream audience. Since the first one, everyone has been trying to duplicate that feeling, and yet it seems that only another Indy film can do that.