It’s been almost 20 years since Harrison Ford last donned the fedora and graced the silver screen as Indiana Jones. The question is, after two decades of anticipation, does Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull live up to the hype?
While films of this nature often have unrealistically high expectations placed upon them by general audiences and loyal fans, this case warranted such an outlook because the three driving forces of the Indiana Jones series, writer/creator George Lucas, director Steven Spielberg and Ford, said they would not return to the franchise unless they could unanimously agree on a script that was both respectful to the characters and rendered a story worth telling.
Unfortunately this is not reflected in the final product. Crystal Skull comes off more like a sequel haphazardly thrown together to cash in on its predecessors’ success, rather than the carefully crafted film promised by the Indiana Jones triune.
The film opens in the Nevada desert with a team of KGB agents infiltrating the infamous Area 51, holding Indiana Jones in tow as their prisoner. The team takes him to the secret government warehouse seen briefly at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark and order Jones to help them find a very special box, the contents of which were recovered in Roswell, N.M. in 1947.
Jones escapes, of course, providing the film’s best and most realistic action sequence, culminating in a nuclear weapons test that he manages to escape in a very clever and humorous way.
But the film starts to get off track. In his debriefing, the FBI accuses Jones of being a communist and working in league with the Soviets. While it’s interesting to tie the film into the Red Scare of the McCarthy era, this plot point is completely dropped after the next scene and neither revisited nor resolved.
At this point we are introduced to the young Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf). LaBeouf is great for the role and has excellent chemistry with Ford. The true nature of LaBeouf’s character has been the subject of much speculation but his identity becomes obvious when it’s revealed Jones’ old flame Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) is Mutt’s mother. Allen returns for the first time since Raiders and she’s a welcome familiar face.
The crystal skull, the focus of the film, is an intriguing artifact, but Lucas’ spin on the myth veers the film off course. The "jump the shark" moment happens when KGB agent Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett), an otherwise credible villain, explains to Jones the Soviets’ plan to use the skull for mind control, forcing him to look deeply into its eyes and into a psychic trance.
While Lucas, Spielberg and Ford all went into this with the best of intentions, they seem to have lost something in the years between sequels and are not the same men they were when making the original Jones trilogy. Lucas is certainly not the same revolutionary filmmaker he was back in the ’70s and ’80s. His recent dependency on CGI is evident. Spielberg lacks the childlike wonder that made his previous films so endearing.
However, Ford is the exception. He got back into shape for the role and his performance is one of his best in years. It’s clear he enjoyed returning to his most famous role this side of Han Solo.
Though it disappoints, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull still provides a fun trip to the cinema, assuming the audience can suspend their disbelief a bit more than usual in the standard Indiana Jones experience.
