He's back... for our greatest pleasure.
Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) has aged, but he is still the great adventurous thrill-and-treasure-seeking archaeologist we all know. And this time, he embarks himself into his most extraordinary and most sensational adventure since the first time we saw him in 1981.
The movie opens in 1957. To make a quick calculation, that's nineteen years after the events of the third movie and it also corresponds exactly to the lapse of time that passed in our own time. The Nazi villains have been replaced by the no-less dangerous Soviets, and most especially the icy black-haired scientist Irina Spalko, played with mastery by a perfectly convincing and terrifying Cate Blanchett. She's probably the greatest adversary in the history of the franchise.
After the Ark of the Covenant, an Hindu sacred stone and the Holy Grail, the MacGuffin of this new adventure is a mysterious crystal skull from an ancient south American civilization linked to the Maya people. This skull, we quickly discover, is actually linked to a civilization endowed with a superior intelligence. In other words, extra-terrestrials. By the way, the movie opens in the famous Area 51 and references to Roswell are made.
The crystal skull seems to be some kind of key that would allow to its owner to discover the city that the Spanish Conquistadores called the Eldorado.
Dr. Jones is accompanied this time by a young motorcycle-riding greaser named Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf). He will also meet in his trip the professor Huxley (an eccentric John Hurt) and none other than Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), the female hero of the first movie, "Raiders of the Lost Ark".
We can see from the beginning that Indy is getting old outside, but that he is also as fiery and fearless inside as he was nineteen years ago. And throughout his adventures, we realize that he is not the only one. Director Steven Spielberg and executive producer and screenwriter George Lucas bring some immensely contagious energy and fun to this fourth volume. It seems that they drank from the Holy Grail from "The Last Crusade" themselves. "The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" is made with a feeling of found youth and we can easily take a liking to it at each scene. The result is the best Spielberg movie since "Saving Private Ryan".
The action scenes are as exciting to watch as they were before and the characters are puzzling and hide all kinds of surprises. However, it must be said, the surprises in this case can arouse all kinds of reactions. They can be very divergent, depending of the viewer.
First, there's the Mac character, played by Ray Winstone. What he does in the movie is never really clear and his usefulness here becomes very questionable. We could have gotten rid of him and it wouldn't have changed anything to the movie, except maybe an economy of a few minutes in the playing time.
Then, the link that exists between Indy, Marion and Mutt is revealed halfway into the movie and it can make many jumping. And the die-hard fans of the franchise have a great change of scratching their heads wondering if the screenwriters made a mistake or not. But I don't want to say too much neither. You have to see it by yourself and believe (or try to believe it).
And even if the Indiana Jones series are based on exoticism, action and improbabilities, there are limits not to trespass. We might have been repeating this for the last twenty-seven years, but Indy is not Superman. But there are moments in the movie where the filmmakers seem to forget it. And add the fact that he's now sixty-something years old.
From the beginning, we can see surrounded by above a hundred Soviet soldiers in a huge warehouse and he's able to escape miraculously unharmed. Action isn't missing, but the small amount of realism doesn't take too much time before totally fading away. And a few moments later, we can see Indy surviving even more miraculously to a nuclear explosion... I think I've said enough.
However, these mistakes are quickly forgotten once the movie ends. The final events in the jungle are a moment of pure enjoyment and it's the best time to insert what are probably the only CG images of the movie. We can't believe our own eyes.
And the action scenes not generated by computer aren't bad either. Especially the action scenes and the chase scenes by car and by motorcycle. And let's not forget the duel between scientist Spalko and young Mutt.
I just hope that this fourth film is the final one on the list. Not because I didn't like it, far from it. But the climax makes me believe that we don't need to add more. And even when Indy comes out of the darkness after nineteen years, to add a fifth one would only be an easy marketing trick.
"The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" will attract as much money to the producers as the highly magnetic namesake skull, but viewers and especially the fans of the series will also get satisfied. And the latter will get sure that this fourth film is precisely not a simple easy marketing trick and that the will and joy of shooting an Indiana Jones adventure just wrapped up the creators and it can only have positive consequences.
So you all Indiana Jones fans, delight yourselves! You have waited enough. Appreciate with as much joy and as much fun this gift of the gods that the greats Steven and George offer to you. And you will be grateful.
Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) has aged, but he is still the great adventurous thrill-and-treasure-seeking archaeologist we all know. And this time, he embarks himself into his most extraordinary and most sensational adventure since the first time we saw him in 1981.
The movie opens in 1957. To make a quick calculation, that's nineteen years after the events of the third movie and it also corresponds exactly to the lapse of time that passed in our own time. The Nazi villains have been replaced by the no-less dangerous Soviets, and most especially the icy black-haired scientist Irina Spalko, played with mastery by a perfectly convincing and terrifying Cate Blanchett. She's probably the greatest adversary in the history of the franchise.
After the Ark of the Covenant, an Hindu sacred stone and the Holy Grail, the MacGuffin of this new adventure is a mysterious crystal skull from an ancient south American civilization linked to the Maya people. This skull, we quickly discover, is actually linked to a civilization endowed with a superior intelligence. In other words, extra-terrestrials. By the way, the movie opens in the famous Area 51 and references to Roswell are made.
The crystal skull seems to be some kind of key that would allow to its owner to discover the city that the Spanish Conquistadores called the Eldorado.
Dr. Jones is accompanied this time by a young motorcycle-riding greaser named Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf). He will also meet in his trip the professor Huxley (an eccentric John Hurt) and none other than Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), the female hero of the first movie, "Raiders of the Lost Ark".
We can see from the beginning that Indy is getting old outside, but that he is also as fiery and fearless inside as he was nineteen years ago. And throughout his adventures, we realize that he is not the only one. Director Steven Spielberg and executive producer and screenwriter George Lucas bring some immensely contagious energy and fun to this fourth volume. It seems that they drank from the Holy Grail from "The Last Crusade" themselves. "The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" is made with a feeling of found youth and we can easily take a liking to it at each scene. The result is the best Spielberg movie since "Saving Private Ryan".
The action scenes are as exciting to watch as they were before and the characters are puzzling and hide all kinds of surprises. However, it must be said, the surprises in this case can arouse all kinds of reactions. They can be very divergent, depending of the viewer.
First, there's the Mac character, played by Ray Winstone. What he does in the movie is never really clear and his usefulness here becomes very questionable. We could have gotten rid of him and it wouldn't have changed anything to the movie, except maybe an economy of a few minutes in the playing time.
Then, the link that exists between Indy, Marion and Mutt is revealed halfway into the movie and it can make many jumping. And the die-hard fans of the franchise have a great change of scratching their heads wondering if the screenwriters made a mistake or not. But I don't want to say too much neither. You have to see it by yourself and believe (or try to believe it).
And even if the Indiana Jones series are based on exoticism, action and improbabilities, there are limits not to trespass. We might have been repeating this for the last twenty-seven years, but Indy is not Superman. But there are moments in the movie where the filmmakers seem to forget it. And add the fact that he's now sixty-something years old.
From the beginning, we can see surrounded by above a hundred Soviet soldiers in a huge warehouse and he's able to escape miraculously unharmed. Action isn't missing, but the small amount of realism doesn't take too much time before totally fading away. And a few moments later, we can see Indy surviving even more miraculously to a nuclear explosion... I think I've said enough.
However, these mistakes are quickly forgotten once the movie ends. The final events in the jungle are a moment of pure enjoyment and it's the best time to insert what are probably the only CG images of the movie. We can't believe our own eyes.
And the action scenes not generated by computer aren't bad either. Especially the action scenes and the chase scenes by car and by motorcycle. And let's not forget the duel between scientist Spalko and young Mutt.
I just hope that this fourth film is the final one on the list. Not because I didn't like it, far from it. But the climax makes me believe that we don't need to add more. And even when Indy comes out of the darkness after nineteen years, to add a fifth one would only be an easy marketing trick.
"The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" will attract as much money to the producers as the highly magnetic namesake skull, but viewers and especially the fans of the series will also get satisfied. And the latter will get sure that this fourth film is precisely not a simple easy marketing trick and that the will and joy of shooting an Indiana Jones adventure just wrapped up the creators and it can only have positive consequences.
So you all Indiana Jones fans, delight yourselves! You have waited enough. Appreciate with as much joy and as much fun this gift of the gods that the greats Steven and George offer to you. And you will be grateful.
