Review: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

For my second post ever, I am going to give a review on the new Indiana Jones movie.

My first thought was how thankful I was that George Lucas did not direct this movie. I am sure there are very many Lucas fans, but my opinion of him as a director is very low, but we can talk about that at another time. His skill as a story teller is a different case though. Most of his brilliance as a director should probably be attributed to his story telling.

I am still not sure how I feel about Indiana Jones 4. The first thing I said to Sierra at the end of the movie was, "Seriously??" Apparently, Sierra had the same question. I don't want to mislead you though. I thought it was a good movie. It was fun to watch. Was it good enough to be the movie of the summer? The answer to that question is maybe. It all depends on how you look at it. If you're like me, chances are, you've seen the previous Indiana Jones movies. You're probably expecting the movie to be similar to the previous three. If you're 20-something or older and you've seen the previous movies - you're going to go see this movie. For the younger folks who have not seen the older movies, you may or may not go watch this one. My wife, Sierra, is a 10th-grade English teacher. Her students told her they didn't like it. Does this shock anybody else but me? Should I be surprised? When I think about it, I conclude that I really shouldn't. The first Indiana Jones installment was released in the 1980s. This was before the teenagers now were born. Indiana who? They may have seen the other movies, but probably not with the same kind of enthusiasm as I did or anybody else who grew up with these movies. This new Indiana Jones probably doesn't appeal to them like it does to us. I may be completely wrong. Who knows? Maybe I'm stuck in that period where I'm getting old enough that I'm out of touch with the younger generation and I've joined the ranks of "old people."

Besides, do teenage girls nowadays really want to go see a 66 year old actor? I know that Harrison Ford has that older man sex appeal that a lot of girls and women subscribe to. But, isn't he getting beyond that point now? Then again, I may be wrong since Sean Connery has a good 10 years on Harrison Ford.

So, was this 66 year old actor able to pull it off and bring back Indiana Jones with his fedora hat and whip? Well, he didn't use his whip that much, but they definitely focused on his hat a lot. If you ignore the fact that Harrison Ford is really, really old now and not as young and limber as he used to be, he plays a pretty good Indiana. But like I said, you have to ignore the fact that he getting older and it shows. Shia LaBeouf as Mutt Williams was an interesting choice. I think that Shia is a great actor despite having his start on Disney with Even Stevens. I thought his performances in I, Robot, The Greatest Game Ever Played, and Transformers were great. Some people thought he would be the "Jar Jar Binks" of this movie. I'd have to disagree. I think Shia pulled off being humorously ignorant as the younger sidekick (if you want to call him that) without being annoying. And did anybody else catch that his name was Mutt and that Indiana chose his name after the dog?

Cate Blanchett as the Russian chick. I really don't know about this one. I think she did her job as the evil villainy Russian person, but something just didn't feel right. Sierra says that she kept seeing Galadriel. I'm not as obsessed with Lord of the Rings to see that, but I don't think I saw evil Russian chick.

In the end, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg definitely pull off another blockbuster hit. Whether it was due to Lucas' writing skills or Spielberg's directing skill or history, nobody will ever know. If you've seen the older installments, you'll definitely want to see this one just to see where it leads. If you've never seen Indiana Jones before, go see the other ones and then circle back if you like them. To be perfectly honest, I don't know, but I suspect that this movie would not have done as well as it has if it didn't have so much history behind it. I think it's a good, fun movie to watch, but I don't think it's a great, amazing movie.