"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (2008)
Directed by Steven Spielberg
"Raiders of the Lost Arc," as well as the rest of the films in the original "Indiana Jones" trilogy, is the perfect "adventure" film. That film presents a fun hero who is both a professor and a Nazi-killing archaeologist, as well as a number of riveting action sequences, with humor thrown in for good measure.
In his latest adventure, Jones (Harrison Ford), now an aged professor living in the 1950s, faces off against a contingency of Soviet agents working within the United States, who are led by Col. Spalko (Cate Blanchett). Along the way, Jones runs into a young, egotistic biker named Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf) who tells him that his mother and their friend, Professor Oxley (John Hurt), who was in the middle of searching for a mysterious Crystal Skull in the ruins of Peru, have been kidnapped by the Soviets.
The new "Indiana Jones" differs from its predecessors in a number of ways, but in the end it does not fare as well compared to those films. There is still a fun, over-the-top nature to many of the sequences, particularly one in which Jones and Mutt fight and run from KGB agents while driving a motorcycle through a city. But the new adventure feels different from that of the other films. We no longer follow Jones as he figures out how to accomplish his challenges - rather, our hero - and we, the audience - seems to be dragged from one setpiece to another with hardly a sense of connectedness between them.
Spielberg and Lucas themselves appear to waver in determining which aspects of the film should be over-the-top and which should not. The computer-generated sequences often vary, even within a shot, from looking very good to very bad; Lucas includes some strange and stupid humor involving poorly-rendered, computer-generated prairie dogs and monkeys; and the adventure itself, insipidly written by David Koepp of "Jurassic Park: The Lost World" ilk, turns out to be a disappointing science-fiction tale that lacks the dark tension of the previous installments.
This has always been a fun, occasionally silly series, yet almost all of the actors give surprisingly understated, and, especially in Ford's case, exceedingly dry and boring performances. Only Cate Blanchett, as the over-theatrical, saber-wielding head villain with a bad accent, interprets the material, correctly, as an excuse to merely provide good fun.
Rating: 6
First Viewed: 6/15/08
IMDB Page
"Raiders of the Lost Arc," as well as the rest of the films in the original "Indiana Jones" trilogy, is the perfect "adventure" film. That film presents a fun hero who is both a professor and a Nazi-killing archaeologist, as well as a number of riveting action sequences, with humor thrown in for good measure.In his latest adventure, Jones (Harrison Ford), now an aged professor living in the 1950s, faces off against a contingency of Soviet agents working within the United States, who are led by Col. Spalko (Cate Blanchett). Along the way, Jones runs into a young, egotistic biker named Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf) who tells him that his mother and their friend, Professor Oxley (John Hurt), who was in the middle of searching for a mysterious Crystal Skull in the ruins of Peru, have been kidnapped by the Soviets.
The new "Indiana Jones" differs from its predecessors in a number of ways, but in the end it does not fare as well compared to those films. There is still a fun, over-the-top nature to many of the sequences, particularly one in which Jones and Mutt fight and run from KGB agents while driving a motorcycle through a city. But the new adventure feels different from that of the other films. We no longer follow Jones as he figures out how to accomplish his challenges - rather, our hero - and we, the audience - seems to be dragged from one setpiece to another with hardly a sense of connectedness between them.
Spielberg and Lucas themselves appear to waver in determining which aspects of the film should be over-the-top and which should not. The computer-generated sequences often vary, even within a shot, from looking very good to very bad; Lucas includes some strange and stupid humor involving poorly-rendered, computer-generated prairie dogs and monkeys; and the adventure itself, insipidly written by David Koepp of "Jurassic Park: The Lost World" ilk, turns out to be a disappointing science-fiction tale that lacks the dark tension of the previous installments.
This has always been a fun, occasionally silly series, yet almost all of the actors give surprisingly understated, and, especially in Ford's case, exceedingly dry and boring performances. Only Cate Blanchett, as the over-theatrical, saber-wielding head villain with a bad accent, interprets the material, correctly, as an excuse to merely provide good fun.
Rating: 6
First Viewed: 6/15/08
IMDB Page
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