Nineteen long years have I awaited another
Indiana Jones adventure. Tantalizing visions of who or what the good Dr. Jones
would face teemed in my imagination since my days as an 11-year-old who had worshipped the classic trilogy and the creative powers behind the Indy universe.
When I'd first heard that a fourth
Indiana Jones was being made, naturally I became excited.
Now, I didn't particularly like, nor did I dislike Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (yeah, that's not a mouthful), and like many others, I feel I should voice my opinion as far as to what I liked/disliked about the film itself. First, I just have to say that there is some good underneath all the bad. I always feel it's best to get all of the dirt off before you can start seeing diamonds (no archaeological pun intended), and well, this Indy has a lot of dirt.
While I do love the material that the story is based on, the film itself did not meet the grandiose visions of what I had expected from Spielberg & Co. Anyone who knows me can attest that I am Spielberg-biased. The guy is one of my lifelong heroes, so I was naturally ecstatic by the prospect of him directing such a story, but why he continually collaborates with overrated David Koepp is beyond me (sure, Jurassic Park was a decent script, but seriously, in regards to this turd-on-paper, I've read better stuff in screenwriting classes). I don't know, maybe I just expected more from this team.
The characters are only somewhat there; for instance, in the first couple of scenes, Indy's dialogue sounds so flat and boring, it feels as if he's back at the University of Chicago giving a lecture. The first scene also contains the requisite character introductions including Mac (Ray Winstone), Indy's traitorous 'friend' who sides with the Russians and continues to betray Indy and crew throughout the movie. Then there is Russian psychic Agent Spalko (Cate Blanchett) who really doesn't do much except try to turn up the Marlene Dietrich voice and try to be a sexy Commie in a role that didn't really provide us with much character development.
*Continuity Alert!!!* In this very scene, Indy manages to steal a gun away from one of the Russians and aims it at Agent Spalko before announcing, "Nobody move or your precious Agent Spalko gets it!" Then, in a later scene, when he is being interrogated by American "top men" (FBI or whichever, one of whom is played by Janitor from Scrubs ), Indy is handed Agent Spalko's file and he asks, "Who is she?" WTF?! I can't believe that made it past the first draft!
Anyway, back to the film.
Then, we're back in familiar territory with Indy teaching in the classroom, when his new Marcus Brody-type friend (Jim Broadbent) comes to talk to him. The dialogue here is lukewarm at best, and the two seasoned actors come across as dry, withered old men (which, not by coincidence, they are and that's what they happen to be talking about - this theme is continued ad nauseam throughout the picture). We've all read the complaints about how Indy's older and silly titles like Indiana Jones and the Search for Viagra or Geriatric Jones and the Kingdom of Social Security (personally, I thought it would've been apt for him to have gone looking for the Fountain of Youth), but after twelve different jokes/references to Indy's age, c'mon...
Now we've come to the Shia. Love him or hate him, if Spielberg cast him, he's good enough for me. Although I don't particularly like his work (he seems a bit obnoxious), he definitely held his own opposite Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, and Karen Allen. It turns out that Mutt (Shia) has been sent by Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen, who is still excellent in the role, even if she seems to have lost some of that feistiness she had back in Raiders ) to find Indy to help find their family friend Dr. Oxley (p