[Movie Review] INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL
I’m really not going to bother with telling you about the plot of this movie. Chances are you have already seen it, and if you haven’t then either you will be catching it soon or you’re one of those people who doesn’t want to see it so either way I’m not going to waste my time or yours with a re-cap of the story – there are plenty of places you can read that!
No, instead I am just going to air my views on the movie – just to give you three four different takes on it right here at Stale Popcorn.
So, first off, Harrison Ford. The guy hasn’t really had a hit for years and there was some considerable doubt as to whether he could put Indy’s hat back on after 19 years and manage to fill it again. Well, I’m happy to say that he does! Boy, does he ever! There were a few moments right at the beginning that I had my doubts (some of Ford’s early line deliveries really are cringe-worthy) but within 20 minutes Harrison Ford stopped “reading” the script and once again became Indy – and it truly was a lovely thing to see! But the nice thing is, that he’s aged. There is a tiredness to him that seems to be dragging down on his shoulders and making him think about the past which is nice to see in the character at the age that he is meant to be.
Moving on, we have Cate Blanchett. She is obviously a great acting talent, and is usually superb in movies, but I did feel her character was a little underused. She wasn’t a “bad” villain as such, there just wasn’t much substance to her. I never really felt any menace from her when she was on screen, which was a shame, but her accent was pretty good!
Ray Winstone – I love Ray Winstone. He is one of my favourite actors. But here, I really didn’t think much of him. He never really made much of an impression on me. He was just….there.
As for John Hurt, well his performance as Ox was decent enough, and he did play a crazy old man pretty well, but the talent we have seen from him in the past wasn’t really in evidence here. Still, for what his character was required to do he did well enough.
So that just leaves us with the two characters who really were as important to this movie as Indy himself. Shia LeBeaf as Mutt Williams and Karen Allen as Marion Williams nee Ravenwood. So Shia LeBeaf first. His introduction didn’t really make any sense. It seems they missed a scene where Mutt went to the college to find Professor Jones and was told he was leaving on the train. Cue a dash through the streets to reach the station before the train departs. But we didn’t get that. Instead we just got Mutt coming out of the steam by the train just before it leaves. Didn’t make a great deal of sense, but there you go. As for the character, once he’d gotten past the greaser hair pimping and attitude he actually became quite enjoyable. As an actor Shia keeps on growing and it’s quite easy to see why he is one of Hollywoods Golden Boys at the moment, and there wasn’t a moment when I didn’t like him in this. Well, apart from the crotch slapping fight or the Tarzan sequence, but we’ll get to that soon enough. But as for his performance, yeah I liked it. If they do follow through with the plan of continuing the franchise with Mutt Williams character then they could have done a lot worse than casting LeBeauf!
As for Karen Allen…..well, this wasn’t quite the Marion Ravenwood we remember from Raiders of the Lost Ark was it? She seemed to have mellowed somewhat, and apart from a few moments she was really only there to give Indy and the fans of the franchise the ending that we’d all wanted to see since Raiders of the Lost Ark ended all those years ago. But her performance wasn’t “horrible”, by any means, she just wasn’t given a huge amount to work with.
All in all the performances of all involved were good enough, even if some characters weren’t as developed as they could have been.
But what about the action? I found it pretty exciting through out, to tell the truth. The initial warehouse chase was good fun, with some nice nods to the fans, even if I really didn’t like the eventual escape method used by Indy! Yeah, the fridge escape was stupid, but not enough to ruin the entire movie for me. After all, it’s not the first time Indy has escaped using a method that really is pretty dumb! The rest of the action sequences were also pretty well pulled off, even if sometimes they did fall foul of the dumb escape method principle. Yes, falling over three waterfalls in an open topped boat would probably put you into hospital, if you survived at all. But then so would jumping out of an aeroplane using an escape raft as a parachute. Or going over the edge of a cliff in said escape raft and landing in a river. Or….well, I’m sure you get the point by now!
The motorbike chase through the streets with Indy and Mutt was very well executed, and is one of the highpoints of the movie, but it was a real shame that a lot of the rest of the sequences didn’t really live up to the promise shown in the two early set pieces. Not that the rest of the action sequences were bad, they just didn’t quite live up to the early promise.
And then there’s the bits I don’t like. Mutt turning into Tarzan. Who on Earth thought that would be a good idea? Mutt getting smacked in the mutts by bushes while straddling two very fast moving vehicles. I guess those genes of his were pretty beneficial, eh? Yeah, I hated that bit as well. There was a part of me that was groaning when I guess I should have been laughing.
The underused or underdeveloped subplots – like Indy being sacked and finding out he was a daddy – were annoyingly glossed over. And the wasted Russian badguys really felt like they were only there to add a little bit of menace to the proceedings. After all, what use is a chase for an artefact if there is no one else chasing it?
Yes, there were problems with it. Yes, it felt like it had been rushed (like we hadn’t been waiting for 19 years for it!) and yes there were moments that I really wish had been left on the cutting room floor.
But you know what? I had fun. It was great seeing Indy up on the big screen again and I had such fun with it that I don’t mind the parts that I didn’t like as they were far outweighed by parts that I did like. It was a fun, popcorn-tastic summer blockbuster. It had it’s faults, but then not many movies are perfect and, if I am totally honest with you, I enjoyed it a little more than I enjoyed Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, and in fact it hasn’t ousted Last Crusade as my least favourite Indy movie.
There were hopes that this was going to be some glorious, nigh on perfect action movie the likes of which we remember from our childhood. Unfortunately it wasn’t but what it was was a fun action movie ride.
3 Responses to “[Movie Review] INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL”
I’d say this is a pretty accurate review. Three stars. Solid entertainment. But flawed. I’m just glad someone else noticed how ropey Ford was in the outset of the movie!
Of course it’s an accurate review – I wrote it!
Honestly, he was awful at the begining! When he first appeared and the theme played it was like “ooooO!” and then he opened his mouth and my heart nearly fell through the floor – especially that “ouch” when Blanchett slapped his face!
But yeah, your comment about “solid entertainment” is spot on. It’s nowhere near to a perfect movie but it is fun, and really that’s all that’s important!
You writing a review of a flick does not always deserve the term “accurate” my good friend! LOL.
PS
Do you have any idea what the prob is behind the scenes with affixing media messages? Switch your MSN on!
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