I'll be damned if I wasn't going to review this one. After a lifetime of growing up on the original trilogy, watching them to the point where I have every little sound effect committed to memory, I can now at last revel in the latest installment, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
I think anyone who's been waiting for this movie anywhere near as much as I have should already know the gist of the plot. For those who don't, it's 1957. The Nazis of the original trilogy have been replaced by communist Russians, who are constantly trying to coerce Indy into searching for the eponymous "crystal skull". The mystery behind it is unbelievable even by the series's standard (and these are movies where prior artifacts include God melting faces and people living with hearts ripped out), and as such won't get spoiled here because the beauty of it was getting it revealed. Anyway, the adventure takes Indy from the middle of the Nevada desert to the heart of South America in search of the real story behind the weird-looking skulls.
I know that it's not particularly original to rely on comparisons to other movies, but all the while I couldn't help but think of Die Hard 4.0. For those of you who aren't familiar with Die Hard 4.0 or more importantly its stylistic departure from its predecessors, it's pretty much an incredible exaggeration of the action that made the original trilogy first. Granted, since the Indy movies were meant to be more over-the-top than the Die Hard movies, this makes Crystal Skull a lot easier to watch, but there a still a number of sequences that are bound to make you go, "Pfft, like that'd ever happen." Even so, the action is damned cool in most parts, with one highlight being a rather amusing rip-off of the legendary truck chase from Raiders.
Needless to say, I enjoyed it a lot. Even though it was prone to several of the same flaws as any of the others, it was still great. The references to all the earlier films were a nice touch, none of them being as cringeworthy as you'd expect. The acting was a plus, with Ford managing to do yet another great job wearing the hat. Sorry for sounding bad, but everyone was good. Hell, even Shia LeBeouf didn't ruin every frame he was in, he was that good. And the music - right on par with every other Indy score.
The only serious fault with Crystal Skull is the relative overuse of CGI. Even though some bits would've been nigh-impossible to do without it, it was still of a quality inferior enough to be distracting, which is a bit of a shame. That's a minor complaint against Skull. It's just a matter of finding out where exactly it sits in comparison to the others. I'll let you know what that is once I've seen it about as many times as the other three (i.e. about fifty times). For now, it was certainly not a waste of time, and it gets my recommendation.
I think anyone who's been waiting for this movie anywhere near as much as I have should already know the gist of the plot. For those who don't, it's 1957. The Nazis of the original trilogy have been replaced by communist Russians, who are constantly trying to coerce Indy into searching for the eponymous "crystal skull". The mystery behind it is unbelievable even by the series's standard (and these are movies where prior artifacts include God melting faces and people living with hearts ripped out), and as such won't get spoiled here because the beauty of it was getting it revealed. Anyway, the adventure takes Indy from the middle of the Nevada desert to the heart of South America in search of the real story behind the weird-looking skulls.
I know that it's not particularly original to rely on comparisons to other movies, but all the while I couldn't help but think of Die Hard 4.0. For those of you who aren't familiar with Die Hard 4.0 or more importantly its stylistic departure from its predecessors, it's pretty much an incredible exaggeration of the action that made the original trilogy first. Granted, since the Indy movies were meant to be more over-the-top than the Die Hard movies, this makes Crystal Skull a lot easier to watch, but there a still a number of sequences that are bound to make you go, "Pfft, like that'd ever happen." Even so, the action is damned cool in most parts, with one highlight being a rather amusing rip-off of the legendary truck chase from Raiders.
Needless to say, I enjoyed it a lot. Even though it was prone to several of the same flaws as any of the others, it was still great. The references to all the earlier films were a nice touch, none of them being as cringeworthy as you'd expect. The acting was a plus, with Ford managing to do yet another great job wearing the hat. Sorry for sounding bad, but everyone was good. Hell, even Shia LeBeouf didn't ruin every frame he was in, he was that good. And the music - right on par with every other Indy score.
The only serious fault with Crystal Skull is the relative overuse of CGI. Even though some bits would've been nigh-impossible to do without it, it was still of a quality inferior enough to be distracting, which is a bit of a shame. That's a minor complaint against Skull. It's just a matter of finding out where exactly it sits in comparison to the others. I'll let you know what that is once I've seen it about as many times as the other three (i.e. about fifty times). For now, it was certainly not a waste of time, and it gets my recommendation.