Indiana Jones, a quick look

Well, I went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull last night and I’m here to say that if you are looking for something new and brilliant, then you might want to go and see something else, but if you are looking for a fun-filled roller-coaster ride akin to the original set of films, (without feeling like a rehash of old stories, plots, and set-ups), then you’ve come to the right place, as this seems to be right were we left off.

To be sure, the previous film (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) occurred in 1938, and it is now 1957, so (technically) the same amount of time has passed between both sets of events in real as well as in movie time. Hence, Indy is now fighting Commies and not Nazis (although it is sometimes hard to tell the difference between the screen versions of these two great bogeymen). At any rate, as stated, the new film manages to evoke not only the look and feel of the original films, but the look and feel of that era as well (after meeting with a pair of government spooks who questions Jones’ loyalty one character comments that they are looking for Commies in their cereal, which naturally connects today’s audience to the story as well).

So,. while there are certainly scenes that are similar to what we have seen before, this sequel does not fall into the trap of simply replaying old scenes with a (slightly) new twist, which is how it manages to not only only retain its own charm, but keep our interest as well. Needless to say, Harrison Ford does look like he’s getting a tad long in the tooth for this role, but he is still very believable in the role, and — oh, what the Hell? — I did like the film and had a good time sitting in the dark watching it, so who really cares about all of that anyway.

Plus there were sly winks at Area 51, the Ark of the Covenant, the Yong Indiana TV show, and…well you’ll see. Plus Shia LaBeouf does quite a good turn as … well you’ll see that too (but keep Marlon Brando in The Wild One) as you watch. Oh yeah, and that catchy John Williams score is always great to hear!

One last thing, however, while it is way better than Temple of Doom, it still doesn’t quite measure up to either Lost Ark or Last Crusade. I think the reason for this is that they were both faith-based quests, while this one seemed more of a Sci-Fi thing (sort of a pre-Columbian X-Files episode If it wasn’t for the fact that it took place some 40 years before he joined the Bureau you would almost expect to see Fox Mulder to have a cameo.

Anyways, my more formal review will come later and (as always) be posted on PopThought in my review column (Suspension of Belief).

The Perfessor