{"id":4037,"date":"2024-09-14T16:35:23","date_gmt":"2024-09-14T16:35:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=4037"},"modified":"2024-10-13T18:08:59","modified_gmt":"2024-10-13T22:08:59","slug":"indiana-jones-and-the-kingdom-of-the-crystal-skull","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/09\/14\/indiana-jones-and-the-kingdom-of-the-crystal-skull\/","title":{"rendered":"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull <\/strong>(2008)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paramount\/Action-Adventure-Sci-Fi\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 122 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (language, adventure violence, scary images)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Steven Spielberg\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: David Koepp\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: John Williams\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Janusz Kaminski\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 22, 2008 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen, Shia LaBeouf, Ray Winstone,\u00a0 John Hurt, Jim Broadbent, Igor Jijikine.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $317M (US)\/$786.6M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: **<\/p>\n

\u00a0I experienced a brief wave of nostalgia as I took my seat at the sold out midnight showing of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull<\/strong>. I was looking forward to catching up with intrepid adventurer\/archeologist Indiana Jones (Ford) after nineteen years. That should have been my first clue as to how the new movie would turn out. That feeling of nostalgia dissipated gradually during the first twenty or so minutes of Crystal Skull<\/strong> and had completely vanished by the time Indy found himself back in the classroom at Marshall College. So what happened? Quite a lot actually and none of it good.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I went in with the understanding that Spielberg would be paying homage to both the sci-fi thrillers and the Cold War paranoia of the 50s this time around. Makes sense, I suppose. The movie opens with Indy and his partner Mac (Winstone, Beowulf) being brought to Warehouse 51 by Soviet agents, led by Irina Spalko (Blanchett, the LOTR trilogy), an expert in paranormal phenomena. I couldn\u2019t believe it when we saw Indy for the first time. That\u2019s NOT Indiana Jones, it\u2019s Grandpa Jones! He looks like he ought to be sitting in a rocking chair relating his youthful adventures to his grandchildren. Spalko wants Indy to locate something for her and her comrades in the warehouse, the same one that houses a familiar crate containing a certain Biblical artifact appropriated by the US government for further study by \u201ctop men\u201d. Then he finds out that his partner is a dirty double-crosser and working with the Soviet baddies. Who didn\u2019t see that coming? Already, I\u2019m not very impressed.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Indy eventually finds what the villains are looking for, a non-human corpse clutching a crystal skull. Yes, it\u2019s an alien! Indy makes his escape via a rocket sled that takes him to the Nevada desert where he arrives at a model town just moments before an atomic bomb test. In order to save himself, he hides inside an old refrigerator. Yeah, like that\u2019s adequate protection from radiation poisoning! KA-BOOM! Indy survives the blast, but is arrested by FBI agents and labeled a Communist sympathizer which causes him to lose his teaching job. At this point, I no longer felt nostalgic. Instead, I felt pissed-off.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It didn\u2019t stop there. Crystal Skull<\/strong> just kept getting worse. Enter Mutt Williams (LaBeouf, Transformers), the stepson of an old colleague (Hurt, The Elephant Man) of Indy who was kidnapped in Peru after finding a crystal skull. That\u2019s after he suffered some sort of mental breakdown. The two of them head off to Peru to see what\u2019s what and that\u2019s when the adventure (such as it is) really begins.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Okay, let\u2019s cut to the chase about a few things. Mutt mentions his mother a few times, but never bothers to tell Indy that he knows her. It\u2019s his old romantic interest Marion Ravenwood (Allen looking like something from The Mummy). This also means that Mutt is Indy\u2019s son. The Soviets are still in pursuit as well. Mac shows up claiming to be a double-double agent really working for the CIA. DON\u2019T YOU BELIEVE IT! Yes, all this crap about crystal skulls involves an alien spaceship. Is it just me or does this NOT belong in an Indiana Jones flick?<\/p>\n

\u00a0There\u2019s a lot wrong with Crystal Skull<\/strong>, but what infuriates me the most is its overreliance on CGI. The actors no longer do their own stunts (Ford is too old for that anyway) and the effects look incredibly fake. It\u2019s the 21st<\/sup> century and it\u2019s all done with computers now. That\u2019s what finally ruined Crystal Skull<\/strong> for me. Not that the rest of it is much good.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It was speculated that LaBeouf was being groomed to step into the Indiana Jones role. I sincerely hope that NEVER happens. As an actor, he sucks! He hasn\u2019t a fraction of the rugged charm and wise-ass appeal that made Ford the perfect choice for the role. As for Ford, he should have hung up his fedora after Last Crusade. I like the guy, but he needs to give it up and move onto other roles. Besides, I\u2019m not so sure AARP would cover any injuries he might receive during filming. Allen used to be hot, but not so much anymore. She isn\u2019t ugly, but her age definitely shows. Hurt overacts shamelessly as does Blanchett who at least affects a semi-believable Russian accent.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The action scenes are so obviously computer-generated that the excitement is sucked right out of them. The only reason that Crystal Skull<\/strong> rates two stars is that the plot isn\u2019t entirely uninteresting. Spielberg tries to do something different with the franchise. The screenplay by David Koepp (Jurassic Park) isn\u2019t exactly terrible. The problem is that Crystal Skull<\/strong> is very lazy and half-assed. Even Williams\u2019 score fails to add much in the way of excitement. It\u2019s also very predictable. I was actually bored. That\u2019s NOT what people want to hear with regards to an Indiana Jones film. Spielberg should have quit while he was ahead. There\u2019s no reason Crystal Skull<\/strong> had to be made. I\u2019ll stick with the first three movies, thank you very much.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paramount\/Action-Adventure-Sci-Fi\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 122 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (language, adventure violence, scary images)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Steven Spielberg\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: David Koepp\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: John Williams\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Janusz Kaminski\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 22, 2008 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen, Shia LaBeouf, Ray Winstone,\u00a0 John Hurt, Jim Broadbent, Igor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-adventure"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Indiana-Jones-and-the-Kingd.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4037"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4999,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4037\/revisions\/4999"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}