Oh God, I hope this isn’t the final Indiana Jones movie. Wait, I bet you’re thinking I’m ready to go nuclear on Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Hell, no. I liked it. Fun, fun, fun. But now that I’ve been served some new Indy after a near 2-decade famish, I want more, sir. Soon. Before Harrison Ford can’t walk any longer, which could be real soon. And I’m not talking about the rumored Shia LaBeouf (who plays Indy’s greaser sidekick in Crystal Skull) spin-off George Lucas has floated in the press lately. Not interested. I want Indiana Jones. Not the Mutt Williams chronicles.
If there’s one thing Crystal Skull proves, it’s how elastic the Indiana Jones universe can stretch. Plenty of weird and wacky stories to still tell. While I’m on record as enjoying the head-twisting levels of hype and anticipation created by a long wait for a film, a scene in Crystal Skull mentioning a whole volume of World War II Indy adventures illuminated the lost opportunities during the last 19 years. We could have had several Indiana Jones movies detailing his WWII adventures alone. How great would that have been? (The answer is very great.) But that’s lost to the ever growing heap of cinematic woulda-coulda-shouldas.
Now I’ve barely touched on the actual existing movie on hand, which follows Jones’ and pals (including the return of Karen Allen as Marion Ravenwood) as they battle the Russkies (led by a wonderfully batshit Cate Blanchett, the sexiest cinematic commie since Brigitte Nelson in Rocky IV) in the late 50s. Let’s just say the film begins at the infamous Area 51, and you can guess where it goes from there.
However, where it leads from there in terms of style is not as predictable. The story obviously had to move to a later decade to compensate for Ford’s age. Yet, Lucas and Steven Spielberg have really gambled by also transitioning the entire tone from the ’30s/’40s swashbuckler to the much sillier (occasionally campy), messier, preachy style of the ’50 sci-fi B-movie. Several reviewers have charged Crystal Skull of not feeling or looking or behaving like the earlier films. Duh. It’s not supposed to.
Yes, the story is messy. Visually, the film is brighter. Characters borderline on caricatures. And the absurdity rises to such outrageous levels that the most ridiculous moments in Temple of Doom seem tame in comparison. Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is down-right goofy. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. And I don’t believe Lucas and Spielberg planned it to be anything but a loony mix of 21st century technology with the cheesy genre sensibilities (and trappings ) of ’50s B-movies. (Okay I’ll admit some of the muddled story ideas may be due to hiring a hack like David Koepp to cobble a script together from previous drafts. But in some way hiring a hack seems the right move for this film’s intended style.)
Not everyone will buy into this pitch. While the current RottenTomatoes meter clocks the film in at 80% approval, I expect a much larger rejection from the general public. We’re a cynical culture these days and American audience have a hard time accepting films aiming for such unabashed pulpy preposterousness-especially when it’s a wild change to one of the most iconic film franchises. And by no means is the film perfect. Indy’s reintroduction at the beginning clunks for the first few moments. The film wouldn’t suffer from shaving off 10 minutes or more. An angle on the “Red Scare” atmosphere during the first act suddenly disappears just when it’s becoming interesting. And the film’s ending-especially Blanchett’s comeuppance-is rote and anticlimactic.
Yet, as a counter, you have Ford fitting perfectly back in the fedora and appearing to have fun for the first time in a decade. The film bursts with white-knuckle set-pieces, worthy of the best sequences in any of the earlier films (just in case you’re wondering, I rank the films as follows: Raiders, Last Crusade and consider Crystal Skull and Temple of Doom equal). And the movie is funny and warm to boot. Crystal Skull delivers enjoyable popcorn entertainment, which in the end has always been the sole purpose of the Indiana Jones series.
