Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
Paramount Pictures
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Written by: George Lucas & David Koepp
Cast: Harrison Ford, Shia LeBeouf, Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen, John Hurt & Ray Winstone
Review by Adam Tracey

The year is now 1957 and the Russians have now replaced the Germans as the world’s biggest threat. Indiana Jones is pressed into service once more when a young Brando wannabe convinces Indy to help him locate his father or mentor or step dad, but somebody important after he was kidnapped by one particular Russian baddie. So Indy swings back into action visiting many dusty and drab locales and interacting with a whole new cast of characters and a few old ones.

Kingdom has a flimsy story, moments of atrocious dialogue, clunky foreshadowing, out of place slapstick crotch shots, scenes of cheap CGI, clumsy explanations for missing characters, 2 second explanations of crucial details, too many “that-a-boy” eye contact moments, a few completely unbelievable action sequences and out of place WTF scenes, yet with all of that it is still exciting, charming and a whole lot of fun. No it doesn’t live up to its heritage and is easily the worst of the four, but that doesn’t mean it is a bad movie. It has all the moments that make a movie an Indiana Jones movie. It has Indy’s boyish giddiness at moments of discovery. It has moments that make you want to jump out of your seat and a scream “ Go, Indy, Go!” and it has all the same dead foreign languages, spider web covered secret entrances and a healthy helping of troublesome natives that you expect. I thought for sure that I would walk away cursing The Bouf for ruining this movie, but surprisingly my issues with his character were not because of him, but instead due to the lines and situations that the script put him in.
 
 

Since the last Indiana Jones movie came out 19 years ago films like The Da Vinci Code and National Treasure have taken the formula that the Indiana Jones franchise made famous polished it up and at least in the case of Treasure taken the next step. Lucas thinking that to compete with the new generation of summer spectacular decided he needed amp up his movie by throwing CGI at the screen, but it doesn’t feel right. It is like Lucas took the engine of a 2008 muscle car and retro fitted it into a Model T. The Model T still has the look and fell of the classic it is, but now it goes a lot faster and makes a whole lot more noise. The problem is you just know something isn’t quite right. Movies like National Treasure are supposed to steal ideas from Indiana Jones movies not the other way around, in fact there were a few scenes that almost felt like they were paying homage to National Treasure. That is sacrilegious. Ben Gates can’t carry Indiana Jones’ fedora. Overall though an ultimately enjoyable movie and a must see.
 
 

“..the best Indiana Jones movie yet!”
Blurbtastic quotes are satire and are created for comedic purposes only. They do not reflect the actual film's review, star rating or entertainment value. Wildside Cinema does not endorse "quote whoring."  Blurbtastic quotes may not be used without prior consent from Wildside Cinema.
Movie:

 

 

 

Home  Staff Picks  Reviews  Articles  Store  Forum  Blog  Links  Contact

 

©2007-2008 Wildside Cinema. All Rights Reserved. All images copyright of their respective owner.

No written works submitted to and displayed on this website may be re-printed or published without prior written

consent from Wildside Cinema. No mongoose were abused during the creation of this site.