Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Life in the old dog yet.

Indiana Jones is called back into action when he becomes entangled in a Soviet plot to uncover the secret behind mysterious artifacts known as the Crystal Skulls.

So here it is, the fourth instalment of the Indiana Jones series is finally here, one of the most talked about, most anticipated, and most yearned for films is here to hopefully entertain the fans and maybe garner some new ones in the process?? Does it deliver? Well to me it most certainly does, as adventure yarns go, this is a ripper, and although the plot gets lost within the outlandish ideals, the film still emerges as one of the betert popcorn blockbusters of the year. All the chief ingredients that have made the franchise so beloved are crammed in by way of crowd pleasing necessity, and it damn well works, outrageous action sequences perk us up at frequent intervals, deftly self aware comic moments are many, and crucially, the film remains loyal to the heroic good against evil spirit of the franchise.

We begin in the Nevada Desert in 1957, and it's through this 50s setting that we come to accept the ageing of the main protagonist, he is after all a mere mortal, a man with a whip and a bit of guts. The 50s was a time of paranoia, spies and dubious cover ups were all the rage, this shines through from the outset here, and putting an aged Indiana Jones in this time frame is nothing short of genius. But enough of the politics, we as fans just want to be entertained, and we are well served here, spooky chambers, mysterious civilisations, tricksy maps, unfathomable codes, creepy crawlies, peril at every turn, and stuntery abound, oh yes it's all here. However, the purists will hate the use of CGI in this, and for sure it does grate during one over extended sequence, but just like it didn't stop Stephen Sommers' The Mummy being a riot, it doesn't harm this picture either, we are after all talking about a popcorn actioner here. Surely going into a film of this type one immedi...

Good watch, could watch again, and can recommend.

I'm always confused on when this movie is supposed to happen, and too many people get caught up in the involvement of Shia Lebouf to think too hard about it.

This movie catches a lot of flak for Shia and half a dozen other things, but compared to the original 3 movies, the concepts of a crystal skull aren't any more weird. While people forget that aspects of the first 3 artifacts are real, the crystal skulls are a real thing that is actively being investigated. Because it's caught up in all the "alien conspiracy" communities I think the movie absorbed some of the ridicule of those people.

The story itself is well structured, Cate Blanchett and Karen Allen are welcome are awesome additions to the story, and despite the "sci-fi" element from an alien skull, the movie keeps to a archaeological theme by investigating an ancient temple site.

While I'm not going to re-watch this, please ignore the negative hype and give this a try if you like a good action adventure story.

The problem with this is that if it was watched in isolation it isn't a half-bad adventure movie. Harrison Ford and Shia LaBeouf keep the story moving along OK. Unfortunately, it will always be compared with the earlier prequels and it simply doesn't hold a candle to any of them. Karen Allen reprises her role from "Raiders" with some considerable joie-de-vivre but Ray Winstone and a ridiculously cast Cate Blanchett as the Ukrainian colonel just don't cut through as we race across the world to track down the origin of a mysterious crystal skull. The plot is almost irrelevant; this is just a vehicle for the star and a pretty charabanc one at that. Can think of a few good uses for the killer ants, though...