INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL - We meet again, Doctor Jones!
Written: May 22 '08 (Updated May 23 '08)
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Pros: Even 15 years on, the Raiders March still gets my blood pumping.
Cons: No Pat Roach for Indy to beat up this time around. :(
The Bottom Line: The Mummy, Tomb Raider, Pirates of the Caribbean- a lot of pretenders have come and gone, but when you get right down to it, nobody does it like Indy!
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| desslok's Full Review: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull |
You may not know this, but there are two Steven Spielbergs. One of them is the lean, mean director hungry to prove himself, a director who pretty much owned the seventies and the eighties. Every movie he put his hands on - Duel, The Sugarland Express, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, ET, Raiders of the Lost Ark - was a solid home run out of the park. Well, everything but 1941 - but we'll call that a mulligan.
And then the worst possible thing that could happen to a young man with the Eye of the Tiger - he got success.
I can point to EXACTLY where things went wrong: Schindler's List and that god damn Oscar. Gone was the daring young man with something to prove, replaced with one who coasted along enjoying the respect of his peers. Oh, don’t get me wrong, he could still make a good movie - but he was playing it "safe", he wasn’t nearly as artistic as he used to be.
I give you exhibit A: the scene in Jaws where Alex Kintner is attacked, and we get Chief Brody's reaction shot in that "pull-away zoom" that Hitchcock used in Vertigo that that every director that has ever gone to film school decided to rip off - pretty standard stuff, right?.
Lets rewind just a bit then in the same scene. The camera is set a distance back from Brody, looking squarely at him as he watches over the beach. Rather than smoothly zoom in towards him in the standard fashion, Spielberg has extras walk directly in front of the camera, effectively blocking our view. Then, after they’ve passed, he instantly jump cuts to a tighter shot of Brody. This occurs several times in succession and is a very nice direcdtoral touch rather than just going with the normal zoom.
If it please the court, I now give you exhibit B: the Big Reveal from Close Encounters, where Roy Neary is building the model of the Devils Tower on his train set - while in the background, the kids are watching Saturday morning cartoons with a little bit of seemingly unimportant and completely unrelated stage business . In frustration, he rips the upper half off, giving it the inmaous flat top we all know. As Neary leans into the shot, the background noise comes up slightly and we hear the Daffy Duck cartoon clearly, a reveing up sound effect leading to an explosion and Daffy going BWAH-HAH-HAH-HAH as it finally clicks for Neary what The Shape is.
Now consider Steven's post Oscar work - The Lost World, A.I., Minority Report, and War of the Worlds - just to name a few - are not necessarily bad, but his output does tend to be mediocre to average with uneven parts and an overwhelming friendly feeling. While Hooper was prepared to kill the shark as the first and foremost task aboard the Orca, a radical environmentalist sensibilities would have a character in The Lost World ignore his own much greater and far more direct responsibility for a rather larger number of horrible deaths from him "spiking the trees", as it were. He removed the guns from the G-Men chasing ET for Pete's sake.
So my greatest fear was not that George Lucas would be the weak link of the chain, but that that a hard ball, two fisted Indiana Jones action flick would be effectively neutered by the Post-Oscar, kid friendly Spielberg.
I'm pleased to report that this is not the case.
The plot is thusly - the Russians (boo hiss) are after a Crystal Skull that is the key to a lost city on the Amazon rumored to be made of Gold. Indy and his sidekick(s), must stay one step ahead of the Godless Red Menace (or two steps just behind them) and get to the MacGuffin first where the Wrath Of God(tm) descends from on high and wipes the evil from the face of the Earth in an over-the-top special effects extravaganza. Along the way there are car chases and fist fights and sword fights and man eating ants and scorpions and creepy tombs filled with spike death traps and blow gun wielding natives all set in a while range of geographical locations.
It is, in fact exactly like Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom and Last Crusade.
There is one thing that does set IJATKOTCS (Bah! What a impossible acronym) apart from the older trilogy, giving it a distinctly different feel from the rest - cinematographer Douglas Slocombe. An old hand at Ealing Studios with experience in nearly every film genre, Slocombe shot the previous three Indy pictures before retiring in 1989 after Last Crusade. While Lucas, Spielberg, Ford and John Williams are the point men for the public, Slocombe's contribution to the series is vital. His clear, patient lighting and composition gave Indiana Jones his appeal.
Janusz Kaminski tries to emulate Slocombe's touch the best he can and he is a talented cinematographer but when Kaminski emulates "old Hollywood", his composition looks flat. His action work is terribly shaky and despite the claims by Spielberg about the reliance on practical effects, there are moments of the film that occasionally look more Photoshopped than a Final Fantasy cutscene.
Shia LeBouf's greaser slash surrogate Indy is energetic and capable here as he's been in his previous films - it's not often to see a real star in his early days, and the kid has all kinds of potential. What's most shocking is the way that Ford and Shia LaBeouf work together. While he may start out as a walking talking cliche in full on Marlon Brando from the Wild Ones, that quickly falls by the wayside proving to be a completely able sidekick to Indy - he's not annoying, not useless and one of the brighter spots of the whole film. Meanwhile Harrison and Karen manage to bring the chemistry they had from Raiders to the film like they never missed a day in the interim sixteen years. The two actors are good together, and there's a touching scene or two along the way.
And the above paragraph is 50 percent of my other major point of concern for the movie: Harrison Ford. You have to understand that I grew up with the man's exploits - he was Han Solo, he was Rick Deckard, and - yes, he was Indiana Jones. Much like Spielberg in the eighties, Ford was the Man to beat. Even his low key stuff like Witness or the Mosquito Coast was still pretty good stuff. And then somewhere along the line, something happened. Suddenly Harrison Ford was phoning it in, picking scripts that were just no good: What Lies Benieth? Air Force One? Six Days Seven Nights? What started with such star power, The Man Who Could Do No Wrong was suddenly starring in utter shit like Firewall.
But - here he is, the Harrison Ford I grew up with. From the first seconds of Indy introduced in silhouette to the last moment escape from the Wrath of God, he *IS* Indiana Jones again, and not just some old guy with a hat and a whip going through the motions.
How much the plot works for you depends on how much you're willing to buy into the Chariots of the Gods thing (and discussing the alien influence isn’t a spoiler; if the poster doesn’t give away the alien aspect, the first five minutes of the movie will). The importance of the Lost Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail were obvious even to a godless heathen like myself, who couldn’t be bothered to go to Sunday school if my life depended on it, the Skull is more nebulous than the Sankara Stones. While the Ark and Grail had faith and the Power of God to offset the absurdity of their nature, we're asked to really take a step sideways from the Indiana Jones mythos.
Although I guess it's to be expected. If Raiders et al were pulp Saturday morning serials of the thirties, then the new Indy relies more on the b-grade science fiction and monster movies of the fifties. Crystal Skull is less Zorro's Black Whip and The Phantom Empire and more Them!, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Day the Earth Stood Still. Gone are the Nazis, replaced with The Red Menace, atomic horrors and creatures from beyond.
But honestly, criticizing the plot to an Indiana Jones plot is an exercise in futility. The plot is simply a framework to string thrilling action scenes, fun character bits and really exotic locations together until two hours later God reaches down from the heavens and smites the bad guys. And I have no problem with Indy moving into science fiction territory, since the since the aliens are firmly tied into archeology through ancient astronaut theories, the Nazca lines and other stuff. And as far as action goes - the movie delivers the goods with at least five major action pieces. The movie drags a bit in the middle, but that allows us to slow down and catch up with the characters a bit.
What is weird is that how Indy is mostly helping the bad guys. The Evil Commies have Doctor Jones captured for the majority of the film's second half - and while in their clutches, he keeps solving riddles that lead them closer and closer to their eventual goal. At no point does Indy try to fake them out or even attempt to outwit them - he just keeps telling them where to go next. That just seems . . . weird somehow.
But then, if I really sat down and tried, I'm sure that I would be able to go through Raiders of the Lost Ark and find flaw after flaw after flaw. At the end of the day, Indy will either fly or die on how well you are willing to suspend your brain and just enjoy. At the very least the latest (I’ll never say last again) chapter of the Indiana Jones story contains some real, honest to goodness fun. That’s something you don’t often see these days. . . .
MY OTHER INDIANA JONES REVIEWS
* Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
* Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
* Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
* Raiders of the Lost Ark
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: Action Movie
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Nothing
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desslok
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Member: Tony Case
Location: Seattle
Reviews written: 571
Trusted by: 30 members
About Me:
He likes schlock, exploitation, science fiction, retro 70's funk and disco? What a guy!
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