Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull review
A nineteen year hiatus is a long time in between films for most filmmakers, unless you are George Lucas, who has no problem letting a decade pass in between sequels.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is one part final sequel for the Harrison Ford starred franchise and part intro to a possible new “Mutt” Williams (Shia LaBeouf ) series for a younger generation. The film takes place in 1957 and is filled with Cold War references, including a nuclear test which leads in to the most ridiculous escape ever for Dr. Jones. The film also swaps out the Nazis for the Russians.
After watching the film I could not help to think that some if the plot elements in the film seemed familiar. Well that may be due to the fact that David Koepp’s (Spider-Man, Mission Impossible and Jurassic Park) script has a heavy dose of story elements from a previous (SPOILER WARNING) Indiana Jones 4 script penned by George Lucas and Jeb Stuart (Die Hard). Lucas seemed determined to revisit the story he had started working on in 1995 and even tossed out a script from Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption) that Steven Spielberg was ready to shoot four years ago.
All in all Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a slow and convoluted, but great looking film filled with some good action sequences, specifically a sword fight on two moving vehicles and cool chase through a warehouse at Area 51. Cate Blanchett is amusing as the head of the Soviet team and Karen Allen is great as Marion Ravenwood. Harrison Ford shows that he can still take and throw a punch on screen and that’s partially what you show up to an Indiana Jones film for anyway.
