[on film]

Back in Action:
Harrison Ford reprises his role in Indiana Jones: The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

By: Anghus Houvouras

This is a difficult film to review because I have so much nostalgia for the Indiana Jones films. They were in an integral part of my youth. Sure, my first film was Star Wars, but during most of that craze I was too young to do anything but scream “Yeah!” and stand in line for action figures. Seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark was something of a game-changer for me, as it redefined just how good a summer blockbuster could be.

Had I not been 8, I might have expected as much from the guy who directed Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Jaws, which were just before my time. But Raiders of the Lost Ark was the kind of film that is perfectly etched in my mind, as good today as it was the first time my dad took me to see it. Like Star Wars, these movies are etched into the Eighties—and like the Star Wars films, there was great concern that bringing back the Indiana Jones franchise, after almost 20 years, could do a great deal to diminish, if not destroy, the legacy.

It’s one thing for George Lucas to destroy Star Wars. He created this behemoth and surreptitiously released three prequels, which not only stripped away its legacy but pissed on it and salted the Earth so that nothing creative could ever grow from it. Don’t believe me?

Wait until later this summer when Lucas releases another Star Wars film theatrically, an animated film set during the really boring Clone Wars. I was extremely defensive of the Star Wars prequels when they first hit theaters. “They’re not as bad as people say,” I would cry. “These are movies for kids,” I would reply. I was among an unfortunate group that can be only be referred to as “George Lucas Apologists.” But, as years passed and time went by, it’s much easier to see the gaping flaws in the Star Wars prequels and just how poorly they were put together.

When I heard they were going to make another Indiana Jones film, I started to wonder if someone should have George Lucas forcibly removed from the project. I had visions of horrible acting, bad dialogue and an overuse of special FX powerful enough to wipe out the power grid east of the Mississippi. So it’s safe to say that I walked into the theater with incredibly low expectations. Thanks to such, I was actually surprised at just how good Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is. It’s not great. Anyone who says that is merely shocked that the film isn’t a steaming pile of awful.

It’s easy to forget how charismatic Harrison Ford can be, after a decade of terrible films. Remember the walking corpses he’s portrayed in films since The Fugitive? Crap like Hollywood Homicide comes to mind, or dreck like Firewall or, even worse, emotionless robotic thrillers like Random Hearts. There were moments when I thought this great screen presence was all but gone. Yet, in the film’s first few minutes, when audiences see Indiana Jones pulled from the trunk of a car by Soviet agents, they see the grin, the glimmer in his eyes, and they realize he wasn’t gone, just merely sleepwalking through material that was well beneath him.

The plot follows an older and harder Jones being used by Soviet super-spy Colonel Doctor Spalko to find the mysterious remains of something that could be alien. After a death-defying escape, Jones ends up narrowly avoiding an atomic blast and is soon branded a suspect by the FBI, who believes he may be in league with the Commie bastards. When he gets back to the university where he teaches, he meets a young motorcycle-riding greaser named Mutt who tells him of a former colleague that has vanished in the jungles of the Amazon, hunting down a temple that has something to do with a large crystal skull that looks more alien than human. Jones and Mutt head down south and begin to investigate the case, racing against time and Colonel Spalko to control the power that the Crystal Skull wields.

The plot, like most of the other films, uses the story to set up one dynamic action piece after another, taking Indy and company on a harrowing motorcycle chase across campus, an amazing driving sequence through the jungle, and escaping an army of ants that would require a battalion of Orkin Men to handle. This stuff still works because of how much fun Ford has in the role. The guy eats danger for breakfast and solves riddles for brunch. Seeing Ford crack a whip or wallop a Commie douchebag is still a thrill. Even the supporting cast has fun, with Shia Lebouff doing a fantastic job of turning an underwritten role into a character with a lot of potential.

While most of the film works, there are still those instances that will make audiences groan out loud. My favorite WTF! moment came when our weary adventurers show up at the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which has been talked about the entire film, protected by “the living dead.” These undead native types show up out of thin air and get their asses handed to them faster than we can say “bad stereotype.” Why are all these ancient places protected by magic and spirits, yet somehow a guy with an Uzi can mow down the entire line of defense? I thought back to Last Crusade where the Holy Grail was protected by an old man who could barely hold up his sword. It seems odd to me that the greatest treasures in the world have poorer security than a 7-11 and somehow would be better off behind a locked door.

My other major bitch is the cinematography, which other than a few opening scenes looks like it was filmed entirely on a soundstage. One of the aspects I loved about the Indiana Jones films was how epic they seemed, filming on location in various parts of the world, traveling around the globe to give them a scope many other pictures lacked. Crystal Skull is a far murkier film, most of it looking like poorly lit stages and CGI backgrounds that do little to inspire the visual palette. Some people might not mind it so much, but, for my money, I’d rather see practical FX and actual locations than a computer-generated world that feels listless.

Although I have a few minor gripes, I can recommend Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull wholeheartedly. There are few films that will pack this kind of punch this summer. It’s slick, fun and keeps the pace moving briskly. Sure, there’s a little bit of dumb stuck in there, but it’s George Lucas. That’s bound to happen.

Like many, I giggled through the last five minutes, the kind of goofy, overly produced finale that only a computer-effects-obsessed producer is capable of. At the end of the day, there’s still a lot to enjoy. Implausible? Sure. A little hackneyed? Maybe. But seeing Ford with whip in hand and the fedora on his head was worth the wait.