At the ripe old age of 66, Harrison Ford still manages to Wow a crowd – and with one of his defining characters. I’ll admit, I was nervous about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of The Crystal Skull… While I was never a die-hard fan of the series, I did enjoy the films enough to appreciate just how well everything clicked together for an Indiana Jones flick.
This time, we’re in the late 50’s and instead of Nazi’s we’ve got Russians. We’ve also got a share of political jabs at the current state of things, but hey – Terrorists, Communists, what’s the difference? Anyhow – this film takes a more sci-fi bend and gets away from the religious overtones of the first 3. Smart move IMHO with current situation where pretty much all religious leaders are a bunch of flaming twats who can’t take a joke.
Marcus Brody and Henry Jones Sr make appearances as photographs on the desk of Jones, having died in the 20 year gap between the last two films. I’m almost glad Connery wasn’t there – while the comradery between the elder Jones boys was the stuff of cinema lengend, it really didn’t have much place in this iteration. In total, Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull stands on its own merit.
Plenty of action here, and Ford pulls it off as only Henry Jones, Jr. could. While some of it was CGI (and very well hidden CGI I must admit) a majority of it was Harrison jumping around like he was looking for the Lost Ark again. Chase scenes abound as well, cars, military vehicles, motorcycles through libraries – you name it. They adhere to the basic formula which has applied to all the Indiana Jones films, but then take it in a direction which was pretty damned risky.
They pulled it off tho. Who knew George Lucas could touch a classic franchise and NOT frack it up like a Clinton electoral campaign? I was pleasantly surprised – with all the cinematic franchises which are either finding a rebirth or their swan-song the past few years, I can say without hesitation that Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skulls – is at the top of the heap.
