Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Dull
Why Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull wasn’t worth the wait - SPOILERS!
Do you think that’s where the plot went, Pa? - I don’t know son, I just don’t know…
First of all let me say, I’m not a massive fan of the Indiana Jones franchise, however I have enjoyed the previous three installments. So I was inclined to be entertained by this one too - shouldn’t be too hard, right?
To put it mildly, I was underwhelmed. The story was convoluted and at the end simply ridiculous - flying saucers, really?! It seems to me Steven Spielberg still had some ideas left over from “E.T.” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and recycled them for this movie, not to its benefit. I’m not expecting it to be entirely logical but a bit more mystery and a lot less “Oh yes, that is language XY which hasn’t been spoken for 7000 years - let me get my dictionary” would have been welcome.
Harrison Ford seems to be only one enjoying himself - well, maybe apart from Karen Allen (Marion Ravenwood). Shia LaBeouf doesn’t do his already cliche-ridden role any favours by horribly overdoing the “My hair needs to be fixed at all times” routine. Unfortunately, that’s not the worst: because Cate Blanchett as Russian commander Irina Spalko is just painful to watch. There is nothing of the crazy spark that makes a villain a really good villain - a rapier cannot compensate for lack of personality. Also, that really really fake accent comes and goes as it pleases and together with that helmet of hair, Spalko is more of a nuisance than a serious baddie. Shame, it would have done the movie wonders - or at least made it a lot more entertaining.
All in all, I was disappointed. The story is flimsy, the acting uninspired, there is not much left of that sheer joy to explore and discover I can remember from the old movies. This is just a chain of haphazardly strung together incidents, some of them quite okay (giant ants), others completely superfluous (nuclear explosion, graveyard, sand pit, waterfalls, wedding) and all in all none of them breathtaking (again, a flying saucer - really?!). Plus, that crystal skull looked to me a lot like there was tin foil inside: how on earth am I supposed to take this serious when they carry it around like a bowling ball?
3 out of 6 Meeps - average
Tags: cate blanchett, harrison ford, indiana jones, review
