stevechristian

Expert Rating:

7

(PG-13)

Harrison Ford

Cate Blanchett

Shia LaBouf

Ray Winstone

Karen Allen

Directed By Steven Spielberg

Good but not great. Let me first state at the outset that I love these old style pulp films. Just recently a friend showed me an old set of 40's style cliff-hangers. They were called serials back then. It was Captain Midnight and his many adventures. The Indiana Jones films are a homage to those kind of films.

So I was excited to finally see that Indiana Jones would return to the big screen. I remember when I first stumbled into a theatre to see the first installment, "Raiders of the Lost Arc". It was a total surprise. For some reason my thought process had led me to think it would be a space movie. It starred Harrison Ford, and he was so famous in Star Wars. But it wasn't a space movie. It was much better. It was, in short, an action classic.

The original Raiders film is a stand-alone landmark in American films. Much like other movies with sequels; like Rocky, Terminator, and (in my mind) the original Batman starring Michael Keaton- they are stand-alone American made classics.

Yet we can still find golden nuggets in these later films. Much like the James Bond movies, we don't want our hero's to die or go away. So now Harrison Ford is back as Indiana. He's in his mid-sixties, yet the word is he trained three hours a day at the gym and subsisted on a high-protein diet of fish and veggies to get his body into condition to recreate this part. I am here to say it has worked.

I remember last year when Bruce Willis brought back his character John McClane for the latest installment of the Die Hard series, the critics were almost unanimous in agreement that at least he looked the part. He was in shape. So it is here with Ford. In fact when producer Frank Marshall was asked if Ford was too old for the part he quoted from the original Raiders, "its not the years, its the mileage". Ford is indeed showing some mileage, but also that he is still able to do the job.

Being that this film is based on the many pulp movies of the past, but mostly from the earlier Raiders films, it is no surprise that several versions have passed over the director's desk (Spielberg).

For a couple years there was a strong push to get Sean Connery back into the series as Indy's father. There was even talk of Indy having a brother, to be played by none other than Kevin Costner. Costner was ready. But when the script was sent to George Lucas- yes remember he and Speilberg were the original partners who made this series- he didn't like the script- and nixed the entire idea. So back to square one. No Costner. No Connery.

Eventually there was a script that both Spielberg AND Lucas liked, and that is what we have today. Some of the actors didn't care what the script was- just please get them in it. For rising star Shia LaBeouf he didn't care, he just signed on. However vet John Hurt needed to see some kind of script, so Spielberg sent a courier to London at three in the afternoon- only to retrieve it at eight that same night. Hurt had to decide based on that five hour window. Hurt decided it was worth a go.

So, what's the story? If it matters, archaeologist Indiana Jones is called into action when he becomes involved in a Soviet plot to find the secret of mysterious artifacts called the "Crystal Skulls". Actually the film had several possibilities for plots and titles. It was almost, "City of the Gods", or "The Destroyer of Worlds", or even " The Fourth Corner of the Covenant". But really, does it matter? We just want to see Indy doing his thing. And he does.

I will admit the current Indy is showing some "mileage", but don't we expect that? Surely Spielberg knows that too, as we have a few lines that reflect the years gone by. In one exchange a character says, "this isn’t gonna be easy". To which Indy replies, "not as easy as it used to be". Just great stuff.

So for my money we get what we want. Indiana Jones. His whip and his wit. The action. And again more action. It's good- but not great. Yet, even though it may not be as great as the original, it is a good addition to the series, and well worth watching.