Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Review

With the opening notes of "Hound Dog", the message is clear. This is a new era for Doctor Jones. welcome to the age of the Red Scare, the atomic bomb, rock 'n roll, and flying saucers. In fact, the movie delivers all of that in the first 15 minutes!

The plot follows a young biker-punk named Mutt Williams, who recruits Indiana Jones to rescue his mother and an old friend of Indy's from a group of Russian agents searching for the lost city of El Dorado in South America.

The usual stuff follows: Deathtraps, puzzles, swarms of creepy-crawlies, angry blowgun and bola-armed Indians, and lots and lots of vehicular imperilment. The stunts are good, although the audience has become more accustomed to this type of thing since Raiders of the Lost Ark first updated the action serials of the 1930's. None of the action is groundbreaking, but there are some clever moments.

Unfortunately, while the action holds up, the dialogue often doesn't. In fact, several characters come off as great... Until they open their mouths. Sadly, even Indy suffers from some bad dialogue early in the film. He gets better as it goes on, though.

The villain, played by Cate Blanchett, has some really fun action scenes, but her dialogue is absolutely awful. She sounds like she belongs in this summer's revival of Get Smart. Still, there's a jungle chase scene where she's easily the most fun character, and actually comes off as sympathetic. After all, we all know that it doesn't matter how many goons she has on her side. They're all useless. Therefore what you basically have is her in a fight against Mutt Williams, Marion Ravenwood, and Indiana Jones. Blanchett's KGB agent is a definite underdog facing those odds.

Yes, you head that right. Marion Ravenwood, with Karen Allen reprising her role from Raiders of the Lost Ark. She's great. She doesn't get enough screen time.

In the end, there's a classic "be careful what you wish for" moment to set up the highly predictable special effects sequence. The epilogue that follows is sugary sweet, but a satisfying conclusion to the series.

The whole thing is over quick, and it lacks the grit of the first film. Indy never seems to be hurt once the crashes and fight scenes are over in this movie, and that's too bad because his vulnerability was one of the things that made Raiders great. And who could forget Marion angrily demanding, "Well? Where DOESN'T it hurt?!?"