I was a little dubious at first about this fourth instalment in the Indiana Jones series, mainly due to George Lucas’ poor attempts at finishing off the Star Wars saga using only CGI and Green Screen. Fortunately, Steven Spielberg has managed to keep Lucas on a short leash and there’s minimal use of CG in this film. It’s a good thing too since most films that are released now consist of mostly fake backgrounds that are a little hard on the eyes.
When the film finished I was left a little confused and I think this was due to the fact that I haven’t seen a film in this style for quite a long time. Crystal Skull actually went on a journey across half the world, there are always new environments and situations for the characters to encounter, not just the same stagnant places. There was actually an interesting story to follow and all the characters had their own motivations for being there, though the story could have been a little stronger.
The acting was great by everyone, except perhaps Cate Blanchett who’s accent slipped from Russian to English and the end of some of her lines which kind of impacted on her character and didn’t make her seem quite so evil. That was the one thing that irked me about this film, the baddies weren’t as dark or as evil as they could have been, there wasn’t the same sense of malice from the Russians as you got from the Nazis in the originals. Ray Winstone (Mac) kind of steals the show from Blanchett as the main evil character, though his motivation is purely selfish he just back-stabs so well. Harrison Ford has lost none of the charm that fits so well with Indy and the fact that he’s still doing all his own stunts brings more realism to the film. Shia LaBeouf was a great choice for the role of Mutt Williams and does much better acting than he did in Transformers. Karen Allen makes a return as Marion Ravenwood from Raiders though doesn’t add too much to the film.
Overall, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a good film, it’s not quite as good as the originals but then sequels never are. It’s a solid addition to the series and isn’t the total let-down that some critics said it was. Apparently Lucas wants to make more Indy films, though I think they should quit while they’re ahead. I’d recommend Crystal Skull but only if you’ve seen the other three as you might be left a bit confused by its return to “classic” sort of film making.
P.M.
June 3rd, 2008 at 2:44 pm
An impressive review, well done PM.
June 4th, 2008 at 5:45 am
I kind of expected it to be kind of weak. It’s unfortunate that that seems to be the case. I would have liked a great addition to the Indy trilogy, but that is ok. My expectations arent very high for this film.
I also would just like to say that I wouldn’t call Iron Man a “homerun”…It was alright IMO. The suits looked great, and it had some pretty good CG, but overall it was just alright.. Ia Stil watching all Movies Here http://www.80millionmoviesfree.com
June 9th, 2008 at 12:09 am
@shen: I wouldn’t say Crystal Skull was weak, it just wasn’t as good as it could have been. It’s an enjoyable film none the less.
Looking back on Iron Man after seeing Crystal Skull has made me realise that it could have progressed a little quicker and had a longer fight between Iron Man and Iron Monger, hopefully the sequel will be better.
P.M.
June 10th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
Just a few things…
Me too. I still am having seen it.
Please don’t remind us of this… roaring “Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!” afore a star field springs to mind!
PM, are you kidding?!? The race/fight in vehicles through the forest, the enormous buzz saw spinning through back towards Indy’s truck, the millions of killer ants (especially when they crawl into that Russian man’s face!), the nuke in the US test town, the fridge Indy really should have been killed in that got hurled through the air, the skeletal alien greys, the temple collapsing around the chamber with the aliens’ thrones, Cate Blanchett’s character’s eyes blazing and burning out of her skull followed by her combustion, the colossal crater caused by the saucer emerging then being filled with water… oh, and THE FLYING SAUCER GOING INTER-DIMENSIONAL AT THE END!!
No, not that much CG.
I’d have come up with more examples of CG but it’s almost the end of the (working) day and my eyes are bluring through too much screen! Besides, my brain has now melted. ;-)
Indy has always been played by Harrison Ford, that’s why it works so well. Unlike Daniel Craig who has turned Bond films into nothing more than the usual action adventure (at best)… they’ve lost “the thing” that all the previous Bonds had.
Maybe not, but the humour integral to Indy films seemed to oose from her. That and the character interaction between Marion and Indy was funny to watch.
So, the “originals” after the first Indy film weren’t sequels?
Let us hope that Lucas is stopped; whilst more Indy films would always be good, the storylines CANNOT endure constant stretching… Bond lasted through periodically changing the main character(s) but filming the Star Wars series out of sequence caused them to required patching and watery-ness to just about work. Sad really as the Episodes 4, 5 and 6 were brilliant!
But they also had Harrison Ford, so maybe he’s just good for the film industry! Even when frozen in carbonite! Heh.
Agreed; it was nice to see the occasional switch to an old map using a red line to track Indy flying around the world. Good to see it still made an appearance.
Good review,
KK
June 10th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
I realise none of those tags works; it doesn’t really matter, all know what they mean.
Pulse, is there a way to use BBCode in comments? HTML? Anything?
KK
June 10th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
I think you can use html. but not bbcode, i will however look for a plugin for it.
*edit* yeah you can use html, and I’ve edited your comment.
June 10th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
@Khamsin:
When I say “minimal use of CGI” I mean minimal compared to say Episode 3 where everything bar the actors and some props was CGI. They could have done the same with this but fortunately Spielberg managed to reign Lucas in.
I said “originals” because over 19 years has passed since Last Crusade was made, that makes it pretty original to me. Just like episodes 4 to 6 of Star Wars are the originals.
Also, I didn’t feel that the humour “oozed” from Karen Allen, her acting felt a little stiff to me.
P.M.
June 11th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Pulse, thank you kindly sir :-) I wonder whether the few tags I’ve used in this post will work…
I was being pedantic; your statement implied that the second and third films weren’t sequels… :-P
Although, now, the name “[yada, yada] and the Last Crusade” is now inaccurately named.
Sidetracking to Star Wars for a moment, it’s a shame 1, 2 and 3 don’t have the same magic as 4, 5 and 6. They’re not devoid of it, but they’re not the same.
There was nothing “minimal” about the use of CGI in Crystal Skull! (Star Wars) Episode 3, along with Episode 2, was indeed full of CGI - however, in that film it was used to replace the storyline and that was a shame.
Of course Spielgit reigned Lucas in! Spielgit is terrible at CGI! Well, maybe not CGI; but how unrealistic was that fat, greedy turncoat in Jurassic Park who took the embryo samples out of liquid nitrogen with his bare hands??
I know it was sometime ago now, but science people on-set at the time should really have told him of for allowing that!
I suppose it was more the way her character and Indy interacted - it wasn’t as bad as you say. True it wasn’t brilliant, but it was amusing to see Indy have someone else to bounce remarks against as part of a different relationship to just some side-kick (his son in this one).
KK
June 11th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Last Crusade isn’t “inaccurately named” because it was about the Last Crusade for the Holy Grail, not about the Last Crusade of Indy.
Anyway, you’ve become far too pedantic and are getting worked up about things that aren’t majorly important so this is gonna be my final reply.
P.M.