* * *
Cast: Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Shia Labeouf, Karen Allen, Ray Winston, John Hurt, Jim Broadbent, Igor Jijikine,
Screenplay: David Koepp
122 minutes / Color
A for effort? Yes. But apart from that, that’s it. As much as I tried to enjoy this newly polished version of the acclaimed “Indiana Jones” series it was hardly as good as everyone think it is. To tell you the truth it is nothing but an excuse to make money. Luckily it wasn’t completely horrible. But some parts were simple unbearable. The humor and the recycled acting and story are what’s more on my bad side.
George Lucas and Steven Spielberg bring back Harrison Ford’s lovable adventure character back to the silver screen but its not only his old age that brings the movie to its weakness. The bad storyline is more to blame on this part.
Years after Indiana Jone’s (Harrison Ford) last adventure, he is taken by a communist Russian group, headed by the evil Professor Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett), to find the Crystal Skull, which is the key to all the knowledge in the universe.
With a gun to his face, Jones does all he can to find the skull and gives the group a head-start. When he escapes from his hands, he goes back home where he is working as a Professor in a local college.
When Jones means punk, Mutt Williams (Shia Labeouf), who mother was abducted by the same group, they face dangers and an adventure to not only beat the communist but get Mutt’s mother back from the lethal group.
When they actually do save her from the Russians, Indy learns that Mutt’s mother is actually an old love of his, Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), but despite their arguments, they must work together to beat the Russians and return the Crystal Skull and its power to its rightful place.
As the movie turns into a race to the temple where the skull unleashes all its power, Irina gets more impatient to gain all the power in the universe. The cat and mouse game continues to action and absurd dialogue…
As the finale comes to a close, the Russians and the Jone’s team arrives in the same time. But knowing the bad guys, the Russians take the skull and Irina places it on the head of a mystical being that is not complete. Lights and magic circulate, but the temple crumbles and happens to be a big UFO and sucks the life out of Irina.
The whole group escapes leaving the UFO to fly away and watching Irina and the Russians leave with them. Indy and Marion’s old love sparks again and they marry into a happy ending. But as they walk away, Indy’s hat is blown away from the wind and lands on his step-sons feet, making the world realize that he’ll follow in his footsteps.
Cheesy or cheesy? I’m sorry but ALIENS? Were they serious? The movie is okay, but when the aliens started popping out, it simply deteriorated in front of my eyes. How terrible to add such a wacky twist and making the amazing Cate Blanchett look like an idiot.
I do however, praise then for their visual effects. Though most of the sets don’t look so natural, the effects added and done were polished with delectable grandeur. Even the space ship at the end looked fantastic. However, it sad to say that most of it was ruined but the unintentionally funny acting of people like Blanchett, Ford and especially the unprofessional choice of Karen Allen.
Karen Allen was the worst. It was not fun to listen to her. She was simply annoying and if I were the script writers, the addition of her to the story would’ve never crossed my mind. I mean, what does the new generation care of Indy’s old love interest? What would’ve been 10 thousand times better if they gave Shia a love interest, even if she were a very bad choice like Miley Cirus or Lindsay Lohan or something, which would’ve been better then seeing that old fart ruin half of the film for me.
Shia is a promising actor; he’s been doing quite well lately and completely outshines the cast. But Harrison Ford’s choice for a comeback was quite overdone. He’s too old for his character and seemed kind of silly seeing him jump around on screen liked he did in his hay-days in Hollywood. But I would NOT like to see Shia as the next Jones if ever they were to make a next movie.
Blanchett’s choice to get as far away as her “Oscary type” performance has become only “type-cast”. She put herself in a trap and getting back to her “The Good German” (2006) roots. And that’s not good at all…
But I guess the film was a little bit worth it because of the grand scale it was presented. The scope and excitement of seeing an old character back on his feet was breathtaking, I admit. Even if it wasn’t as brilliant as I thought it would be.
My confession is, up to this day I have never watched an Indiana Jones film. But I’m kind of glad I haven’t, because if I did, I knew I’d be more disappointed and bash this film thoroughly. My time will come however.
Not that Steven Spielberg and George Lucas wasted their time, I’m sure this was a fun project for them. But they are such amazing story tellers and I know they could’ve made it so much better than this. But this is what they produced and the world has to live with it.
At the end, despite much of my criticisms and bashing it wasn’t absolutely terrible. It was plainly mediocre and for sure fans would agree. That’s why it’s so disappointing. Sagas and series have to be great. All the movies in a series SHOULD be great…but this one is a miss. I’m not counting on a spin-off with Shia Labeouf. Though he is quite talented, I’d rather see him exert his talent else-where.
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