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Java Man Reviews "Indiana
Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (Rated PG-13)
Directed
by Steven Spielberg.
Written by David Koepp & George Lucas.
Starring Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Shia LeBeouf, Ray Winstone,
Karen Allen, John Hurt & Jim Broadbent.
Running Time: 124 minutes.
Overview...
It’s 1957, the height of the Cold War, and we find ourselves drag
racing down a Nevada road to the strains of Elvis Presley’s Hound
Dog. Indiana Jones (Ford) and his pal "Mac" McHale (Winstone)
soon find themselves in legendary Hangar 51 as prisoners of the
deliciously evil Irina Spalko
(Blanchett), a Soviet Super Spy who is looking for the Crystal
Skull of Akator. According to legend, the skull is a source
of significant psychic power and will enable its possessor to
dominate the world through mind control.
Indy and Mac escape and
return to Connecticut where Jones finds himself out of a job as a
professor due
to FBI suspicions that he is a communist sympathizer. Indy
then meets Mutt (LeBeouf, pictured), a leather-jacketed biker who
has a coded message from imprisoned Professor Oxley (Hurt), about
the Crystal Skull. Mutt’s mom, also being held by the
Soviets, is Marion Ravenwood (Allen), Indy’s love interest from
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). Indy, Mac and Mutt then set
out for Peru, with Irina and her agents in hot pursuit.
There are subterranean chambers beneath ancient pyramids,
prehistoric cities made of gold, monkeys and man eating ants, and
waterfalls so huge they make Niagara look like Chagrin Falls on a
dry day.
Review...
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3
1/2
out of 4
Java Mugs |
Now, what is it that
all of these characters are after again? Some sort of a
glass skull? The answer is... who cares? It’s
what Hitchcock called a
Macguffin, the thing the spies are after, but the audience don’t
care." If you
are sitting in the theater and
have to ask yourself why everyone is after the
Macguffin, then the filmmakers are not doing their job.
Spielberg and his team are. They have kept the storytelling
and action so compelling we don’t really care what they are after.
We only care about the characters and their predicaments.
When there isn’t a
highly inventive chase going on, then there is plenty of
sharp dialogue for the audience to devour. The exchanges
between Ford and Blanchett, pictured above, are especially
enjoyable... two well-written characters played by two
outstanding actors.
Even though it’s been
nearly two decades since the last Indy adventure, Ford’s character
comes across just as viewers remember him... crafty,
capable, and full of muscular
 charm.
LeBeouf, making an entrance that recalls early Brando, is
adequate, but not yet ready to don the famous fedora.
Good location work in
Hawaii, California and the New Mexico desert combines with great
stunt work and occasional CGI to keep everything moving at top
speed.
Skillful camera work
has its place too, as when Indy throws a handful of gunpowder into
the air and the camera follows it to one of the movie’s mysterious
magnets.
Popcorn was invented
for movies like this.
To Watch a Preview of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal
Skull
Click Here
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