Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Rated PG-13
Regular Dots
Written by Jack P. King
Edited by Ma’at
After a life time of waiting, anticipation, speculation and talk the fourth movie of the Indiana Jones series was release to audiences a week ago. This new film comes twenty seven years after the first film of the series and nineteen years after the third film. This long span between films puts its main star Harrison Ford at the old age of sixty seven. Now Ford was no spring chicken when he made the first Indiana Jones (he was thirty nine), but you do not see to many stars taking on action adventure roles when they are in their sixties “kudos to Ford”. Previously I ranked the three Indian Jones films with Raiders of the Lost Ark as number one, the Last Crusade in a close second and Temple of Doom in last place. I am happy to say that with the release of the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull the ranking has change … that’s right Temple of Doom you are no longer in last place as the worst Indiana Jones film ever.
After the passage of so much time public interest was still there, but this The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull falls short of the franchise of which it is apart. Living up to the legend of the Indiana Jones name would be no small task and I was willing to give the film some room, but when I gave an inch the story line tried to take a mile and then some more. This movie series inspired a generation to be historians and archeologists has not aged well. This is not to say that it was a horrible film, just the worst Indiana Jones film ever, as far as the basic Hollywood mediocrity that is made every year this is on par. In my opinion this is what I call a bad movie done well; meaning it has good qualities, but defiantly not enough for me. The work by the actors was as good as it can be. Even the introduction of Shia LaBeouf, who was not alive for the first two films, into the series was a good stroke. However I can not sit idly while people go to watch this drivel, I am not going to pander to the film just because it is a part of the Indiana Jones family of films; it was bad no matter what the commercials say.
Indiana Jones is a legend; and when a film series becomes a legend it takes on certain aspects of its own outside of the creators control. This was the same case as Star Wars where the public feelings and ideas around it have made it much larger than its creators. People are going to be disgusted that this movie was made and tarnishes the good name of Indiana Jones. The Name Indiana Jones meant something, before this film, it paved the way for film series’ like the Mummy, National Treasure, Tomb Raider, and Sahara. These movies all fell short of Indiana Jones status in the nineties and early 2000’s. So, high was this mark of Raiders of the Lost Ark that no other Indiana Jones film could reach it. The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was doomed from the start and should not have been made at all.
Yet, it was not a complete loss; as I mentioned the acting was good and the direction was adequate as well as managing to keep my attention for the full run time. The new characters were all good choices and even getting Indy and Marion back together was a good move for the film and fans alike. In fact I might have just written this off as an average film if not for the Indiana Jones name that comes with it. I found a great number of problems that an Indiana Jones film just should not have.
The visual effects were absolutely terrible. Computer generated prairie dogs and monkeys really is that all you got? I have no idea what George Lucas’s obsession with CG characters or animals is, but can we make it stop. The biggest let down was the story of The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull itself. It was over the top in every way. At no point in the other three Jones films was being over the top what they were going for. In the other films the character of Indiana Jones was tough, but not indestructible as this film wants us to believe. “All you need to do is suspend your view of reality” they say, I will not! That was what I did with the treasure hunting films of the 90s and 2000’s that is not Indiana Jones and I blame George. After decades of speculation people wanted the same old Jones not this new bastardized Dr. Jones. I wanted Sean Connery and John Rhys-Davies. I wanted The Last Crusade 2 that’s what I wanted, not The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The commercial say “it is good to have you back Dr. Jones,” I Hope the door hits you on the way back out … soon!
The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull stinks up the Name of Indiana Jones, as well as the real crystal skulls and their mystery. That’s right there are real crystal skulls yet in this Indiana Jones the treasure (crystal skulls) are the most real and the movie takes this idea and turns it into Hollywood garbage. This film is about ten years too late.
There has been talk that Shia will continue in future Indiana Jones films, but let me state that as of now there is no plans to continue the series “thank God!”
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