INDIANA JONES
AND THE
KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL (2008)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
(Original 2008 review)
After nineteen years of waiting for the fourth Indiana Jones adventure (Lord knows how long we will have to wait for another chapter), it is finally here. "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" was met with polite
applause at Cannes Film Festival, though what can one expect when crowd-pleasing blockbusters are not its mainstay. Internet chatter and disappointment from fans and non-fans alike had set in when production began, and now there is a great deal more boos and hisses on the Internet Movie Database about this film after its opening day. As I write this, I see the common complaints about Harrison Ford's old age, Karen Allen's old age, the inclusion of Shia LaBeouf, CGI monkeys, CGI prairie dogs, and plenty of spoilers about the film's, how dare I say, otherworldly ending. Well, let me be the first to say that as a major fan of Indiana Jones and as a no-holds-barred critic, "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" is a stupendous entertainment, and easily the silliest, loopiest, strangest action-adventure movie since, well, "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" in 1989. It will keep you on the edge of your seat and blast you into the world of the 1950's complete with Russian baddies, Russian villainesses, monkeys and vines, Elvis songs and much more. This is director Steven Spielberg at his zesty best.
In the dazzling 20-minute opening sequence set in Nevada, 1957, daredevil archaeologist Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is lured into a warehouse to find an otherworldly being kept inside a magnetic crate
(yes, this is the same warehouse seen at the end of "Raiders of the Lost Ark"). Before long, we are introduced to Dr. Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett), a Russian psychic with clear connections to the Soviet
Union and its regime. She wants the magnetic crate and feels Indy can find it. He does, with some old-fashioned gunpowder (Nice idea). We are also introduced to Mac (Ray Winstone), a triple agent, working for the CIA and for Dr. Spalko, and he has a habit of betraying Indy's trust. But the action settles in quickly with a fiery rocket sled, whip cracks, a jeep chase, a digital countdown clock, a controlled atomic testing site, and a nuclear blast that catapults Indy, hiding in a refrigerator, into a near-death experience. Indy gets cleaned up for radiation poisoning and is accused of allying with the Russians, thanks to the FBI. All this in the first twenty minutes!
As we head back to Marshall College where Indy is also a professor, he learns he is fired for fear of being a Red. Indy gets ready to leave for London when he is stopped by the teenage Mr. Mutt "The Wild One" Williams (Shia LaBeouf), a high-school dropout who likes fixing motorcycles. Mutt tells Indy that Indy's old colleague, Dr. Oxley (John Hurt), is somewhere in the Amazon after having discovered a mystical crystal skull. There is a map written in an ancient language that must be solved to dictate Oxley's and Mutt's mother's location and the location of the crystal skull (why must everyone write in cryptic hieroglyphics!), but before that we are treated to a dizzying, breathless motorcycle chase through the university and its library! It turns out that the KGB agents are onto Dr. Jones and his young sidekick. Once they arrive in Peru and discover more clues leading to the Akator temple, the twosome have to contend with Dr. Spalko and her thick Russian-accent and her quick-quoted reminders of Mr. Oppenheimer himself ("The Destroyer of Worlds").
I do not have to say much more except what to expect in the tradition of the Indiana Jones movies. We have the animated map lines; cavernous cemeteries; glowing treasure objects; a creepy-looking crystal skull; nasty scorpions; cemetery guards armed with poisonous darts; forbidden temples with dozens of booby traps; quicksand; thousands of red ants; silly monkeys swinging from vines; the aforementioned magnetic crate; a nuclear explosion; a drag race; scared prairie dogs; lead-lined fridges; pyramids; nasty falls from what looks like three Niagara Falls; Mayan warriors who may wandered from the lands of "Apocalypto"; an alien corpse; and an extended DUKW (amphibious to the rest of you) vehicle chase that includes a sword duel! Oh, yes, and there is the mad Oxley who is in something of a trance in the jungles of the Amazon, and there is some nifty double-crossing from the treacherous, greedy Mac who is on anyone's side as long as he gets cash.
The charm of the Indiana Jones pictures is that they never take themselves seriously. This is all a throwback to innocent serials of the 30's, 40's and 50's, replete with some last-minute rescue attempts
and unbelievable chase scenes marked with wit and frenetic pacing. But something else has happened with Indiana Jones - he has aged and matured and so has, to a certain extent, the series since 1989's "Last Crusade." If you recall "Last Crusade" was a more solemn entry in the series, lacking the intensity and whiplash edge-of-your-seat, hair-raising action scenes of the "Lost Ark" and "Temple of Doom." It made up for it by being a slight character study and added depth to Indiana Jones by including his bookwormish, disapproving father (Sean Connery), not to mention a delicious prologue involving young Indiana Jones as a boy scout. By the end of that film, Indy was treasuring his renewed relationship with his father, and was no longer the relentless, stubborn adventurer of the first two movies. That was an interesting way to layer the character with more than just a sentimental side - Indy was slowly becoming like his father. In "Crystal Skull," Indy is older and wiser. He still punches with great velocity and strength, but he doesn't set out to kill anyone (in fact, outside of a canny if implausible method of using a blowgun, he merely fires his RPG launcher to deflect a vehicle, but not necessarily kill anyone). Even more fascinating is that he doesn't ever fire his gun! He knows how to use his whip but he never uses it as a lethal weapon per se. Basically, Indy tries what he can to get out of a situation with his wits and imagination, not by killing anyone specifically in the process. For example, he says to a tall Russian soldier who delivers a Dolby-ized smack to Indy's choppers, "Drop dead, Comrade."
Or even Indy's insistence that a snake not be called a snake. He is an older man who has seen it all, knows the greed and the power that men and women wish to possess, and basically all he can say is, "Same old, same old." When trouble brews, he says, "This can't be good." Only Ford can deliver these cheesy lines with conviction and a touch of vulnerability.
Another angle to Indy is that we learn he has won some medals for fighting in World War II, and that he was told to keep mum on the Roswell incident of 1947 (UFO and Roswell fans are going to love this
movie!) Indy is a lonely man at the start of the movie, having lost his father and his old colleague and museum curator Marcus Brody (whose statue plays a pivotal role in an early action scene). It is
only fitting that returnee Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen, not as feisty but just as damn beautiful as ever) is on hand, to continue bickering and arguing with Indy and his relationship with, well, I
won't spoil it. In many respects, Indy's character mirrors Harrison Ford's own career after appearing in some unworthy films for more than a decade, only to bounce back with more roguish charm and buoyancy than ever before. It is the freshest element of this movie.
"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" could've used more fleshed-out moments between Ford and Allen who still have great chemistry (I sense some scenes ended up on the cutting room floor); some more depth to Ray Winstone's double-triple FBI agent, Mac; more emphasis on the madness in the eyes of John Hurt's Oxley; and a little more of an evil charge in Cate Blanchett's Spalko, who might've been a more formidable opponent (she is no match for the sneaky French archaeologist Belloq from "Raiders"). Those little nitpickeries aside, Ford and Shia LaBeouf are terrific together and show some of the same pleasantries as Ford did with Connery in "Last Crusade." More importantly, "Crystal Skull" is classic Indy fare, and it is definitely entertaining and lots of fun from start to finish. But be warned - this movie is not full of the escapist, thrill-a-minute, enthralling set pieces of the first two films (though there are enough moments to make you hold on to the edge of your seat and it is has the genial tone of the "Last Crusade"). It has action and adventure, though the adventure aspect takes precedence (we get lots of exposition on the mythology of the crystal skull). "Crystal Skull" is
terrific fun and a natural progression of the Indiana Jones character since "Last Crusade." No
way anyone can truly top "Raiders" and why should Spielberg (at the height of his powers here) or George Lucas or Ford. This is a hell of a ride, and that is more than you can say for most Hollywood
blockbusters.
