Movie Reviews

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

This flick was a fun movie; very reminiscent of Raiders of the Lost Ark. It is hard to believe that the first move, Raiders, was made in 1981, I am getting old.

In many respects, this movie followed the same basic story outline and action sequences of Raiders; great vehicle chase scenes, creepy environments, over the top bad guys (in this case, bad girl played by Cate Blanchett, who incidentally, reminded you of the creepy Nazi SS guy from Raiders), intellectual curiosity etc. Thus, even though it re-hashed that basic story of Raiders, since such movies are rare these days, it was a nice change of pace and a fun movie.

I had some issues. Note, it is hard to discuss this movie without discussing plot spoilers, but I will try. In the end, this I.J. movie went X-Files with its plot, which was a little disappointing. Also, some of the action scenarios pushed credibility. Granted, pushing action sequence credibility is a hallmark of the I.J. serious, but there were a few sequences that truly defied reality.

Nevertheless, this movie is a nice culmination to the serious and I rank it as the 3rd best I.J. movie. My ranking is (1) Raiders, (2) Last Crusade, (3) Crystal Skull, (4) Temple of Doom. But Raiders, Last Crusade and Crystal Skull are all very close to each other, but Temple of Doom is a very distant 4th.