Review: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

* * * 1/2

Harrison Ford, Shia LeBeouf, Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen, John Hurt, Ray Winstone. Screenplay by David Koepp. Story by George Lucas and Jeff Nathanson. Directed by Steven Spielberg. 124 minutes. Rated PG-13. Paramount.

The most anticipated film of the year—maybe of the last 5 years—is Steven Spielberg’s giddy new adventure Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the fourth installment in the Indiana Jones series and a damned entertaining picture with heavy dollops of humor, enjoyable star turns, top notch production values and a fine sense of adventure. It will satisfy fans of the series immensely, and for my money is the second best in the series.

Its been nearly two decades since Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade—a picture widely considered a return to form after the disastrous Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, the ugly sequel to the now-classic Raiders of the Lost Ark—and Spielberg and company are back in peak form. And while the new film does not approach the timeless original, it works as a comedy, an adventure and a nostalgic trip, buoyed by the return of producer George Lucas, director Spielberg and stars Harrison Ford and Karen Allen.

Ford, in his sixties, still cracks a mean bullwhip in his signature character (among signature characters), and Allen looks great and talks tough as Indy’s abandoned love Marion Ravenwood. Subsequent actresses in the franchise—a gratingly shrill Kate Capshaw and bloodless but beautiful Alison Doody—didn’t match Allen’s spunk, and it’s good to have her back.

For the audience old enough to have seen the Indy films theatrically in the 80s, there will be no greater movie pleasure this year as when the lights go down on this picture, dropping archeologist, professor and adventurer Indiana Jones circa 1957, this time caught up in Cold War intrigue. The Nazis of Raiders and Last Crusade have been replaced by a band of evil Ruskies determined to obtain a mysterious object buried deep in a government vault of secret artifacts, located in the desert of the American Southwest, that great, mythical place of Roswell, Area 51 and government conspiracy.

Spielberg gets maximum mileage out of the impeccable 50s milieu with a loving and evocative depiction of cars, motorcycles, fountain sodas, ducktails, leather jackets and the artifice of a nuclear testing site—all brought to vibrant life under the burnished cinematography of Janusz Kaminski. The genius DP, who won Oscars for past Spielberg collaborations Saving Private Ryan and Schindler’s List, recently mounted Julian Schnabel’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly with a completely different, immediate, often experimental visual design that couldn’t be further from the classic look he gives this picture.

Led by uber-fierce comrade Irina Spalko (a wily Cate Blanchett), the unearthed curiosity—a magnetic mystery—leads to two superb sequences as Indy is expelled by flaming rocket into the desert, only to be stranded in an about-to-be bombed, small-town America nuclear test site.

To the chagrin of Dean Stanforth (Jim Broadbent), FBI suspicion forces Professor Jones into early retirement just in time to meet leather clad drop-out, rebel Mutt (Shia LeBeouf), on a mission from his kidnapped mother to entice Jones to find the Crystal Skull of Akator, a mythical artifact thought to contain magical powers. A delirious, inventively staged motorcycle chase through university corridors ensues, featuring two funny stunts—Ford moving back and forth between the cycle and the window of a moving car, and the bike itself sliding beneath library tables to the surprise of students.

It turns out that Professor Oxley (John Hurt), an old Jones colleague and family friend of Mutt, is in grave danger, and a coded map deciphered by Indy reveals the item to be buried deep within the catacombs of Peru, a fabulous set that begins with a decaying hospital followed by a truly creepy underground system of caverns and surprises, replete with rotting corpses, scorpions and shapes shifting in the night, harkening back to the original picture. But as in that film’s search for the Ark of the Covenant, there are nefarious forces in hot pursuit, mainly Spalko and her fellow Reds, as well as former Indy colleague and “triple” agent Mac (Ray Winston).

Before long, the unlikely duo crosses the globe (courtesy of the series’ staple plane/map geography) and is reunited with Mutt’s mother, Marion Ravenwood (Allen), and her reintroduction to Indy holds a few swell surprises. Angry at being dumped decades earlier, sparks fly as they bicker, banter and narrowly avoid certain death every ten minutes or so. Add a hypnotized Oxley to the mix, and the film sets up its basic formula of chase, escape, recover the goods, lose the goods, chase, escape, repeat. Formula? Maybe. But what great chases and escapes they are!

By the time they reach the Amazon in an effort to find the secret kingdom that holds the remaining 12 crystal skulls—each possessing a magical power and all of the knowledge of the universe—Spielberg outdoes himself with a very funny, fear of snakes reference in a pit of quicksand, an extended jungle jeep chase where Mutt and Spalko memorably sword fight atop separate, racing vehicles, an army of man-eating ants, three killer waterfalls and a booby-trapped (is there any other kind?) chamber of riches.

The climax of the film holds a few nifty thrills regarding the skulls’ origins, even if its denouement recalls the opening of the Ark in the original film. And while Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull overplays its hand a bit in the final scene, for most of its running time it effectively restores a sense of grand adventure to the contemporary action film.

And then there is the cast. Craggy, virile Ford still cuts a daring hero and his sense of humor is sharper than ever, making his scenes with the excellent LeBeouf crackle with wit over generational discord. LeBeouf is charismatic, handsome and has an appealing, cocksure swagger that suits Mutt, and the action, well. Game Allen is a welcome return to the series even as the film reaches, not always completely successfully, at romantic and familial reconciliation.

The film’s cartoonish, Natasha-esque villain is the marvelous Blanchett, donning a thick Russian accent, ebony pageboy and obvious sense of fun at playing a wicked commander determined to know all that is unknowable. If there is anyone still in doubt that Blanchett is the heir apparent to Meryl Streep, her vanishing act here should do the trick.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is mightily entertaining, and highly recommended. While some have quibbled with its humor, others with its action and still more with its ending, it is hands-down the most exciting film of 2008. And when John Williams’ iconic score kicks in, just try resisting.

- Lee Shoquist

lee@atnzone.com