One of the reasons I liked this movie so much is that I cut it a lot of slack. It was nice catching up with Indiana Jones and seeing where he is 19 years later. And I have been curious about this film for about 2 years now. But event though I like the character so much and have a huge love for Raiders of the Lost Ark, I can't say that I have the same love for Crystal Skull.
And after thinking about how I would rank the four movies, I'd have to say I'd rank Raiders as first, Skull and Crusade in a tie for second and Temple last. (I consider Raiders to be Spielberg's best film.)
There are a couple of things that you have to get used to in this film from the very beginning:
1. Harrison Ford is old. So is Indy. It took me a bit of getting used to seeing him gray. But I am glad they didn't dye his hair and try to convince us he looked the same since Crusade. Indy makes a good crusty old man.
2. Cate Blanchett's accent. I love her but I kept hearing Natasha from Rocky & Bullwinkle. But after awhile, you get used to it.
I found the beginning to be slow. Too much of the racing scene and too much talking in the warehouse. But thank god we didn't have to sit through Spielberg's version of a Busby Berkley number for the first five minutes. There is a wink to the first movie during this scene and it's right there in your face, no avoiding it.
Indy has a new sidekick but I didn't care about him at all throughout the movie. What a waste of a part. It could have gone to some cool comedian but it didn't and could have been removed from the movie altogether.
Personally, I hated the scene where Indy is walking through a nuclear testing site. I mean they set up mannequins to represent real people, but having these dummies watching Howdy Doody on a TV? How did the government pull that off and why would they do that? To see if TV's survive nuclear blasts? The mushroom cloud? Too much. Too much.
From there, stuff happens (including homages to Denholm Elliott and Sean Connery - that kinda pulled at my heartstrings) and we get introduced to Shia LaBouf's character, Mutt. Spielberg does his damned best to compare him to Marlon Brando, but far from Brando LaBouf is... I didn't buy Mutt's toughness. And there were a couple of times I wanted to see Indy punch him in the nose... Mutt combs his hair, that means he's cool. Meh. We see Mutt's soft side in a scene, but I didn't care enough about him to feel his grief.
Motorcycle chase scene was okay, but something occurs that Spielberg does that pisses me off. He takes things one step beyond believable. Indy being saved by Marcus Brody's statue is funny when the car runs into it. But the head falling off and hitting the driver in the crotch is the step too far that I mentioned. Yuck. The scene in the library was hysterical. I liked that.
I'll skip to the graveyard scene. I liked it a lot. A lot of fun action and fight sequences. But nothing that stuck out as memorable to me. We see the skull and right off I say to myself - aliens. And that made me cringe. How was Spielberg gonna pull that off? Not sure and I don't think he ever does pull it off.
Stuff happens and Indy and Mutt get captured. Cate Blanchett gets to shine here but the character's belief in the supernatural was hard to swallow for me. She's so calculating and precise (she and her clothes look perfect throughout the film) it seems like someone like her would laugh at things not explained as fact.
We get re-introduced to Marion again and her appearance is welcomed. And get used to Marion smiling because she does a lot of it through the movie and it seemed kinda hokey. Marion got a dose of the same treatment Sallah and Marcus got in the 3rd movie. She was turned into just a sidekick with not a whole lot to say.
There's also Ox played by John Hurt who is vital to the plot (is there one?) but he was a forgettable character.
I will agree with Alex that the scene where they meet again is good.
There's a quicksand scene and a revelation that Indy is Mutt's father. Too bad we didn't get to like him all that much. There's a funny scene with quicksand and a snake that made me laugh.
On a side note, one of the things I hate about parts 2-4 is that they are lit too brightly and things (sets, costumes, props etc) are too perfect and clean. I don't know how to express myself clearly on that one, but Raiders used a lot of shadow and existing light in scenes. It made the Indy world more believable.
More stuff happens and we get a jeep chase through the woods that is half awesome, half stupid.
Again, sword fight between Mutt and Blanchett is cool. Sword fight between Mutt and Blanchett while Mutt straddles the two vehicles? Bleh. One step to far, Stevie. And then there's this absolutely ridiculously stupid Tarzan scene involving Mutt. WTF? Lame.
The characters encounter giant fire ants that consume a couple of bad guys. The special effect of the ants is great, but I thought it was kind of hokey. Seeing a guy being eaten alive - cool! Seeing him being dragged to the anthill with lightning speed and mega-strength on the ants part - lame! Eating someone alive should have been the stopping point with the ants.
And then comes the part I despised. What I liked about the first movie was that a lot of the things that happened could happen in real life. Yeah, the magic ark melting people couldn't happen... but it was one of the only times when you had to suspend your disbelief and that's fine. With Skull, you had to do it a lot.
Marion drives off a cliff and the boat/car that they are in careens off of three (two? I forget) waterfalls and everyone is fine after all that. In fact, after one fall of a 100 foot waterfall, everyone's still in the boat. I shook my head at that. Lame.
Attacking natives, yaddah yaddah...
From there, the sequences up until the big reveal I loved. The giant temple at the beginning and how it all worked and moved was classic Indy-ness. Good stuff. (But again, lit too brightly.)
The big reveal: the temple houses a giant spaceship and there are aliens.
That's where the movie went CGI crazy. There was too much of it and it left me feeling meh about the climax. Which is not good.
The Jones Family is finally together and everyone's happy.
Indy married Marion at the end and all is well.
Does the torch get passed to Mutt? Almost, but no. I actually liked that part a lot. Nice try, dinglecheese, start your own series of adventure movies.
I liked the movie but I didn't really love it. And nothing in it made me cheer. Other people in the audience did, but not me.
I would have liked to see a harder Marion like we saw in the first one. Less smiling.
I would have liked to see more grit in this film. More grain, less shiny happy locations and lighting.
But a big thing that would have helped this movie and franchise out was that it deserved the Casino Royale/Batman Begins style treatment. I think if they took it a step away from a campy cartoon-like and to a more serious and (again) gritty feel, it would have been cool to see. Set up Mutt for a more realistic documentary hand-held type romp for his movies which follow. (If they follow.)
The more I think about this movie, the more I don't like it.
But I was entertained and I did laugh at certain places. And I really do love happy endings.
3 stars out of 5 for me.*
*Subject to change after I see it again tonight and on Saturday. :D
