Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

This movie is why I sit through all of those Ashton Kutcher comedies, remakes of TV shows I once loved turned into dreadful movies that make me cry, horror movies that bring terror into my life for how bad they are, and anything starring an Olsen Twin. For two hours, it is a chance for every person who loves Indiana Jones to be a kid again, and you’ll be giggling, smiling and cheering just like a 13-year old (you can even get Milk Duds AND Twizzlers to make the experience complete).

Set in 1957 (that’s right, 19 years after The Last Crusade took place), Professor Henry Jones Jr. (Harrison Ford) still is teaching and going on adventures. He’s even added the title of master spy and American hero to his resume, and Indiana’s going to need all of that experience to save himself from the Commies, led by one of Stalin’s favorite scientists, Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett).

Spalko is leading a brigade of soldiers in search of a legendary artifact known as the Crystal Skull, which is rumored to give immense power and riches to he - or she - who returns the skull to a lost city in the middle of the Amazon. Comrade Spalko needs Jones to lead her to it since one of his old buddies, Professor Harold Oxley (John Hurt), may have found the skull and city, but the Commies can’t figure out the clues and maps. Along the way, Jones meets Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf) who brings a letter from someone in Indiana’s past, who has been working with Oxley.

Will Indiana Jones be able to defeat the Commies, find the Crystal Skull and save the word?

To best enjoy the movie, I think you need to realize what you are getting into. Director Steven Spielberg and producer George Lucas are not trying to make a modern movie with amazing special effects and a troubled, brooding hero fighting the bad guys as well as his own personal demons. You get that movie when the next Batman movie comes out in July (and believe me I’ll be first in line for that one, too).

Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, just like the previous Indiana Jones films, is a throwback to 1930’s serial movies that were pure entertainment and had no interest in trying to explore nuance and the human condition. If you keep that in mind, you can see the charm and beauty of the movie, while letting the action and story thrill you, especially the film’s opening sequence, which may be the most perfect way I have ever seen to re-introduce a beloved hero.

The tone set by Spielberg, writer David Koepp, Lucas and story creator Jeff Nathanson has the perfect amounts of camp, humor, danger, action and swashbuckling (lots of swashbuckling) to keep everyone in the audience entertained. Spielberg brings back many of the elements that were so endearing in the first movies like the way we see the travels of Indiana Jones drawn out on a map in the background as we watch the plane or train move along its path. We have old fashioned, raw action and fist fights instead of special effect spectaculars with hundreds of computer generated figures and backgrounds.

Additionally, we get a sense throughout the movie that there were parts of our world that were mysterious and unexplored, so going there with Indiana Jones makes you one of the few to see and experience them. Indiana Jones doesn’t use Google Maps to get you to the places in his world, and to solve a riddle or find the next piece of the puzzle, you had to be a person who studied for years and gained immense amounts of knowledge instead of hopping on the internet to get the answer. Indiana Jones has to be his own walking talking Wikipedia! And we love and admire him for it.

The team does a wonderful job throwing in little details that will make fans cheer, and they deserve special kudos for wonderful tributes to those who aren’t around for this movie. Plus, I love how we hear bits and pieces of what Jones has been doing since the last movie ended, giving us the impression that he never stopped seeking knowledge and doing the right thing in the face of evil. That is the biggest reason we believe the events of this movie are just the continuation of what we love, instead of the greatest cash grab since Henry Hill and his Goodfellas participated in the Luftansa Heist.

Of course, it’s Harrison Ford who makes Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull so special. In the face of many reminders that he’s not as young as he used to be, Ford also makes Indiana Jones just as smart and tough as he always has been. With every fist fight or daring feat, Ford is believable and makes us forget he is in his sixties.

Also, he puts that special light in Jones’s eyes and shows us Indiana’s genuine love for what he is doing as our hero uncovers every clue, and gets closer to making his amazing discoveries. I think Ford always brings the right amount of grumpiness to Indiana Jones, as well as a fantastic look of anguish and disbelief on his face as the going gets tough and painful.

One part of the ending might feel a bit too fantastical for those who don’t know much about the legends of the crystal skulls and the other part might seem a bit sappy, but I wouldn’t change a thing.

Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is rated PG-13 for adventure violence and scary images.