"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (2008) - Movie Review

Harrison Ford joins the gang of oldies of Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone, hooding up for their third or fourth venture but this one is unique among those fair. It has a genre created which is revisited by the men, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. First time was magnificent, second sucked, third rejuvenated and now the fourth, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull”. Ford in his elegance and sincerity is the old Indy and lined up are numerous talents with Cate Blanchett, Ray Winstone, John Hurt, Shia LaBeouf and the lady from the “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, Karen Allen reprising the role of Marion Ravenwood. Jim Broadbent does a guest role of Dean Charles Stanforth.

We waste no time to see Indy bruised and dusted among the barren lands of Nevada to be forcefully finding a box in the warehouse of US secrecies. The year is 1957 with cold war and the villains are Russians under the leadership of Dr. Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett). Yada Yada Yada, fights and stunts, Indy betrayed by his mate Mac (Ray Winstone), whips, jumps, drives, crashes and survives a nuclear blast. The box of course has the omnipotent power of domination or it should lead to the destiny.

Do not you get the feeling what is going to happen to a character or know the relation of them to each other by mere look of them in the first shot? We get a lot of it and Spielberg does not hide it or even attempts to be a surprise that is going to pull your rugs off. He knows that we know but Indy is about the adventure, wit, sets and reviving nostalgic moments. Add some young blood in the form of Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf) to get a parboiled entertainment. We think a lot. May be Ford is old, may be the Franchise has started too late, may be the kid is not up to the challenge, and may be we have seen it all. Crawling through these maybe’s the journey goes to South America and there we meet every one. And that’s it; we are transported into the world of Indy and now with group of compatriots. It is wild, fast, chaotic and of all fun.

The doubts are imminent at the start. Because we are in the clouds of high expectations and the reality is something else. Hence we take some time and we understand what it used to be and what we were given. The movie in the meantime shares similar perspective and finds its groove on. After that there is no stopping with old fears and relations along with new adventures and rivals are the ride one would normally anticipate. The CGI and the stunts in the second half are spectacular, pure brilliance in the sets and execution. And man I have been so impressed with Karen Allen in the first film that she is absolutely amazing in this. She has and brings the much needed feminine energy which was missing the past two installments. She is the character which belongs to this franchise, always.

Let’s face it, there is a wall to face and say “this is the end” as Jim Morrison said and travel back for some long story. And in the Indy franchise, it is the path walked several times with uncountable and unimaginable stunts and surprises. We watched as Kings and Queens coronated not once or twice but thrice by sitting at the top and looking at the center ground of all the games and gargantuan remains and antiques of this franchise. Spielberg and his team invite us one more time and while they do not try for matching the magic of the first one brings back those memories of Jones being Jones retracing his old steps with new people.

The endurance in character Ford brings still topples us. He is an old chap under the Fedora but with the stubbornness and charm he always had. We can see him struggle running but never does his sincerity wobbles. He is able to polish the old character with the scratches and scathes not as laceration in the hero but giving us the pleasure of viewing an antique worth a lot.

For the plot, I merely paid attention. It has cool stuffs and the geeks in Lucas and Spielberg emerge as saying may be, the past is the future and we just have not put down that ego of the advanced technological era beside to see that. “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull” is not the question of living up to the expectation of the viewers but is the viewer ready to bend the expectation on how the film takes on them. The franchise is an amusement park. They have new rides but the place pretty much remains unchanged. It is still lot of fun, if we visit it once in a while.