Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull 2008

Dragonleo reviewed Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

Indy Takes It Over The Top

-WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS CONCERNING THE PLOT, IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE AND PLAN TO WATCH IT, SAVE THE READING OF THIS REVIEW FOR LATER-

Upon hearing that the new Indiana Jones movie was finally being released, seeing the new trailers and everything a while back, I was exhilarated. Indiana Jones, the definition of action/adventure movies, was finally going to be brought back to life with modern technology. I had high expectations.
Then, the movie came out. I read a few reviews written by some friends, and was surprised to see that the movie was "nothing special" and "a bit too much". A vague reference to the storyline of the movie in one of the reviews actually made me wonder in astonishment, would the writers really include something like that in an Indy movie. Today, I finally got to see it with my own eyes, and...
Well, they sure did. Ouch.

Indiana Jones is back, and even though the looks of his age have caught up with him, the lack of antics surely hasn't. This time Indy finds himself dealing with a strange series of events somehow linked to the appearance of a Russian KGB member, colonel dr. Irina Spalko and the mysterious disappearance of Indy's old friend, Henry "Ox" Oxley. With a newfound acquaintance, the young and reckless Mutt Williams, dr. Jones sets out to figure out the riddle of the mystical crystal skulls, that seem to be linked with a certain legend about a certain city by the river Amazon...

Don't get me wrong about the ouch. I think Harrison Ford is one of the greatest male actors around even today, and that Shia LaBeouf did quite a convincing job with his role. Cate Blanchett, despite the ridiculous hairstyle, was a convincing Russian villain, and the rest of the crew was nice as well. Not having anything to complain about the actors, there was something that was a major disappointment. I set to see the movie not expecting it to be good after reading the reviews. They were spot on, simply because this movie takes the regular, fairly realistic Indiana Jones-style and throws it into a trash can. This thing is on a whole another level. I'm talking out of this world-another level. And that, in my humble opinion, is not good at all. In the end of the movie you were left with a kind of a "this is what they came up with?"-feeling, because I really didn't expect the writers to add something so LAME into the plot. I'm not saying what it is, go see the movie, but I'll tell you right now, with a great storyline like the previous movies, this one could've been, in the best case, a 10-star cinematographic experience. After this single thing, It's barely your 8-star average quality adventure movie with a great cast and good music.
The complaints aside, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull had some absolutely stunning visuals, one of the better ones I've seen in my life. If your a vfx-person, go see the movie just for them, if you're not otherwise interested. The film score was quite good, but not the best John Williams-quality.

All in all... I don't know what to say. Indiana Jones is one of the rare movies that can dissapoint you quite a lot and still be a 7.89 out of 10. Definitely worth watching, but perhaps just once.

Sirpa reviewed Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

Typical "guy flick"

Indiana Jones films in my book go together with James Bond films. They're ment for the boys. This one was full of cliches typical for Indies and Bonds. Nevertheless they can be entertaining and the visual effects were ok and with John Williams as the composer of the music it's good entertainment, but doesn't really blow your mind away.