| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Movie Name | INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL (2008) |
| Director | Steven Spielberg |
| Writer | David Koepp, George Lucas, Jeff Nathanson |
| Lead Actor | Harrison Ford |
| Cast | Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Shia LaBeouf |
| Genre | Action, Adventure |
| Release Date | May 22, 2008 (United States) |
| Duration | 2h 2m |
| Budget | $185 million |
| Language | English |
| IMDB Rating | 6.2/10 |
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Positive Aspects of INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL (2008)
The single biggest question mark hanging over this instalment in the Indiana Jones series was whether or not Harrison Ford could still play the role at his age without any mobility assistance I’m glad to say that he’s most definitely up to it and for much of the running time you can believe that no time has passed at all, save some scenes where they make his age a blatant issue.
It’s great to see Ford back in action and in a strong, dignified role after a string of woeful and forgettable films (“Hollywood Homicide” anyone?). Story-wise, this film has a lot going for it, least of all being the Crystal Skull itself and it’s tie in with an alien civilisation that helped teach early humans to build technologies more advanced than they were capable of at the time. Whenever the story moves toward the Skull itself, there is a certain spookiness about it, especially its ability to communicate telepathically with people and is best exemplified in the finale when it is returned to its altar and combined with the other alien skeletons in a spectacular finale.
As this object revolves around an alien artefact, there’s a visit at the outset from the film to Area 51 where our main villain played by Cate Blanchett wants to steal the body recovered from the Roswell crash in 1947 all nice touches. Continuing the theme from “The Last Crusade” of Indy’s family, we’re introduced to Indy’s son played by Shia LaBeouf who does an amicable job of exhibiting his father’s traits, and Karen Allen returns as Marion and it was nice to see the feisty relationship between Marion and Indy back on screen.
The action is probably on par with the previous films, and Spielberg and Co. manage to make these quite entertaining and at times funny (harkening back to the old Saturday afternoon serials which these films are based upon). There are quite a few references to Indy’s age in this film, but they’re worked in organically and after a few scenes you don’t really notice his age as your swept up in the story. What works well in this film is that it still has many of the elements that made the previous films so good, so when you walk out of the cinema, you feel as if you’ve watched another Indiana Jones film and not some tired cash in which is a shadow of its former self.
Drawbacks of INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL (2008)
Despite being a good Indy film, there’s something missing from this instalment. It has the usual components that made the old films work, such as character, action and a fascinating archaeological object in the Crystal Skull. And it is an entertaining adventure film with some excellent action. However, one of the strongest elements of the previous films in the series involved the mysticism surrounding the object that Indy was chasing and in this film, despite an excellent finale where we finally get the power of the skull emerging for all to see, we don’t really get a sense of the mystical aspect to the story.
Spielberg and Co. are too focused on including too many scenes which function as explanations for why this film should exist (ie backstory: what happened to Indy’s father and Marcus Brody, what happened to Indy in the years between this film and the last, poking fun at and/or acknowledging Indy’s advancing years). As a result, not as much emphasis is placed on the Crystal Skull itself and its power which is a shame because it was perhaps one of the strongest concepts in all of the movies (definitely better than the Grail from “The Last Crusade”). Cate Blanchett, despite putting in as strong a performance as possible in a film like this, isn’t really as nasty a villain as those from the previous films, and the lack of any other villainous characters (there was usually more than one in the previous films) leave this area of the film a little flat.
Another thing that felt a bit off was the lack of a pre-story sequence where we see Indy in a mini-adventure that has nothing to do with the rest of the film (as with the previous films). Instead, right from the beginning we’re right in to the main story this might also have been a symptom of Spielberg and Co. wanting to devote more screen time to explaining the existence of this instalment. And Indy’s main music theme doesn’t actually appear in the soundtrack all that often. It’s a shame because these types of things do detract from the film leaving you feeling with a “that was good but it lacked something…” feeling when you walk out of the cinema.
Final Verdict
Indiana Jones is back with style with a strong central concept, great character moments and entertaining sequences that we’ve come to know and love, despite not quite hitting all the marks (and in fact missing some completely) that the previous films did.
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