I saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Friday night and, after thinking about it for a few days, I still like it. It is flawed, as was every other Raiders of the Lost Ark sequel or imitator, but I still like it. In fact, I think I liked it better than Last Crusade, but not as much as Temple of Doom. (I know what your thinking: “With the blonde screeching, and the annoying kid and the epic fall out of an airplane on a rubber dinghy, you still think Temple of Doom was better than Last Crusade?” Yeah, I do. Funny how opinion works, innit?)
So…spoilers for the uninitiated…
You see, I fully intend to nitpick the hell out of this thing, but if you begin with the starting premise — that we’re watching an homage to old serials, b-movies, and pulp novels — the movie stays true to itself, which I think is an achievement. Indy has moved from the 30s-style adventures (Nazis and Judeo-Christianity) to the 50s-style pulp (Commies and aliens), and I think it works.
In fact, a lot of this movie did work despite my expectations, the allusions to the previous movies (although, was that pic of Marcus on Indy’s desk a screenshot from Last Crusade?) were well done without hamfisting it too much (I mean, you knew the ark needed to make an appearance, but the Young Indy ref was refreshing). The car chases and fight scenes were lo-fi spectacular, the villains interesting and even the rapport between Indy and Mutt was well done. I really expected to hate Shia LaWhatever’s character, but I thought he was one of the better Indiana Jones sidekicks. It was also great to see Karen Allen again. She’s aged, of course, but she was still sharp and feisty. The Commies…even Psychic Commies…were great cannon fodder for a surprisingly bloodless film.
Sure, we could have done without the Mac character. What purpose did he serve, really? (Well, that one thing, but they could have written around that.) I’m mixed on the John Hurt character, but seeing him dancing insanely in a poncho was worth it. (He reminds me of a cartoon character, prolly anime, but I can’t put my finger on it.)
My chief complaint is that this movie is stuck on fast forward, there are few downbeats in the tempo…no moments of romance or a campfire card game to help take the edge off the action. By quickly moving to the next chase scene to the another, Spielberg diminishes the effect of the previous one. Sure, we get a very trim film…everything seems built to push quickly through the exposition to the next fight scene. In addition to the CGI backgrounds, it is this movie’s biggest concession to the modern era of relentless action films. Overall, however, they made shockingly 80s-style flick (again, despite the lack of bloodshed).
My other big complaint would be the ending. Without getting too into it, it lacked the punch of previous films. At the risk of sounding like I know what I’m talking about, perhaps since they were rushing so quickly through this movie, as I mentioned earlier, Spielberg and Lucas didn’t let the tension build enough to maintain a proper release. Or not. Whatever.
What I thought was satisfying was the resolution of the Indy/Marion romance. One of the themes of the film was the fact that Indy wasn’t a young man anymore. Sure, the wedding was a little treacly, but I got the impression that this was about a dream deferred. Indy survives by acting, seizing the initiative as well as the submachinegun. With Marion, he failed to act, pure and simple, losing her for 20-some years.
I promised to nitpick, but I’m afraid there are toddlers and babies to attend to, so I’ll leave it on one note about the Commies. Commies are good villains. Russian commies, in particular, who killed more of their own people than the Nazis by an order of magnitude…granted, they had more time for mass murder. My point is, it is okay to despise the soviets.
For a few scenes, the movie was trending toward a kneejerk “it is the 50s, so we must mention McCarthy, we’re just as bad as them” mindset, especially in the government’s reaction to Indy’s Area 51 escapades. That is, Indy loses his job, gets blacklisted, and the Janitor from Scrubs accuses him of being in with the KGB.
But to be fair, the gov’t reaction was probably the right one in the context of this movie. I mean, if a column of elite Russian supersoldiers made its way into a secure gov’t base during an atom-bomb test, some McCarthyesque paranoia would be justified, wouldn’t it? Of course, I think Spielberg might be making a reference to the current political climate. (Duh — Ed.)
All and all, a flick worth seeing. That doesn’t necessarily mean I need to see the adventures of Henry Jones, III, but there will always be a place in my heart for this kind of (now old-fashioned) popcorn flick.