Indiana Jones

Update: Spoiler Alert! Sorry I didn't have this up before.

I just saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and I am sad to report that I was unimpressed. The first act is as cheesy and funny and wonderful as Raiders of the Lost Ark or The Last Crusade, but then they threw in a spaceship and everything went to hell. I'm a big Indiana Jones fan, and wasn't happy with the ending, which is like something out of a bad romantic comedy. The first half of the film makes it well worth seeing, but the second half is plagued with sentimentality, and becomes duller than Temple of Doom. And then there's the objectionable proposition that the Mayan people couldn't have built their civilization themselves, but I guess that smacks of the 50s, when the film is set.

All of the acting was good and most of the characters were very entertaining, except for Marion, who, unlike Blanchett's equally humourless Irina Spalko, was unable to elicit any laughs from the audience. The arguments she had with Indy made the audience cringem, and their ability to rebuild their friendship after 20 years of not seeing eachother wasn't really explained. Shia was hilarious as Mutt Williams, and Harrison Ford was, of course, as good as ever, but towards the end of the film, when all of the characters were following an insane Oxley (John Hurt), they weren't given the opportunity to create any action themselves or really make any good jokes.

The story was good, the acting was good, the special effects were good, John Williams succeeded in creating another great score, but somehow it just didn't add up. The screenplay didn't allow for entertaining interaction between the characters once they moved to South America, and some of the third act's few jokes fell flat. There was lots of action, but most of what took place in Peru (aside from the ant scene) lacked the cheese of the earlier Indiana films. The topical messages about governments that spy on their citizens evaporated once the crew left America, along with the interesting political dialogue that went with it. I think it could have been much better if Spielberg had both the CIA and the Russians trailing Indy; it would have distracted from the awkwardness between him and Marion, and held up the storyline better than the Russians alone, who, aside from Cate Blanchett, were devoid of personality.

The film tried to be touching and romantic, but that is something an Indiana Jones film should never attempt. I don't want to slap it with a bad star rating, because the first half is really enjoyable, but it isn't a film that I would watch more than twice, which is something I could say about the other films in the franchise. The screening was, however, one of the most impressive and emotive I've ever attended; I don't think I've ever seen a movie with an audience who cared so much.