Indiana Jones movies: “The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”

Does Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull bring back the good old adventuring action and bring it up to speed with modern standards?

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
(USA 2008, director: Steven Spielberg)

In 1957, Indy tries to prevent the Soviets from using the power of the Crystal Skulls that turn out to be of alien origin and lead to a much greater treasure.

Making a franchise return after so many years is always a difficult task, as could be seen with the Star Wars movie Episode VII: The Force Awakens which was a lot of fun, but relied too heavily on the same story already told in Episode IV: A New Hope. So it’s actually refreshing to see something new, without Nazis, but with Russians being the next step of clichéd villains. Taking place in another time line, the alien story also makes more or less sense, while a few nods back to the classic Indy movies, especially Raiders of the Lost Ark with Indy’s former girlfriend Marion, work quite well, too. Looking for clues, mixing adventure elements with history hasn’t changed, either. But the alien story still seems very convoluted, and one can’t take Cate Blanchett’s villain character seriously, either. There are a few touching scenes, though, as when Indy talks about how the world has changed with the death of his father and his university friend, but these moments are very rare.

The biggest problem, however, is the use of comedy and over-the-top action sequences. Even if the former movies, especially Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, weren’t the most realistic and overdid it at times, the newest Indy movie simply takes exaggeration to a whole new level, piling one catastrophe on top of the other, but in a such a forced way that the audience’s intelligence is questioned. Having a car swim down one or two waterfalls is one thing, but having it plunge down a third time is just ridiculous. Man-eating ants might be acceptable, but having Shia LaBeouf’s younger Indy version swing from one vine to another in the jungle, accompanied by apes, seeing a sword fight on a car or watching Harrison Ford climbing into a refrigerator and surviving a nuclear strike is so annoyingly stupid that it bares description. Including cute animals is again an indication that George Lucas was too involved in the story, and there are some pretty awful dialogues that are either unintentionally funny or intentionally funny and feel out of place. As a fan of the original trilogy one is constantly torn between enjoying the action and shaking one’s head because of the bad CGI and action sequences that desperately try to cover up the fact that Indy deserved more than this.

Score: 6/10

Buy the BD on
Amazon Germany
Amazon Germany (in 1-4 Collection)
Amazon UK
Amazon UK (in 1-4 Collection)
Amazon USA
Amazon USA (in 1-4 Collection)

Buy the DVD on
Amazon Germany
Amazon Germany (in 1-4 Collection)
Amazon UK
Amazon UK (in 1-4 Collection)
Amazon USA
Amazon USA (in 1-4 Collection)

imdb

If you liked reading this article, make sure you pay a visit to Future Sack which kindly features it as well, and every LIKE or comment is appreciated on EMR’s Facebook page or FS’s Facebook page :). Or FOLLOW the blog on EMR’s Twitter page.
Using the Amazon links and buying the products also helps ;).