Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

DA DA DA DAAAA DA DA DAA!

NOTE: This is not a spoiler. I'm not going to give anything away.

Okay...I'm going to try not to give anything away.

So. Let me start by saying that I love Indiana Jones. I mean, who doesn't? It's hard to resist that music, first of all, and Harrison Ford was hot in the 80s and early 90s. Hell, he's 65 and I still think he's hot! The Last Crusade, I have to admit, is my favorite. It's the first one I saw, actually, back when I was little. My dad is a huge fan, so we've had the movies in my house for as long as I can remember. I also have to admit, however, that I've only seen bits of Temple of Doom. One of the bits I saw was the part where they cut the snake open and there are more snakes...you know? In any case, I've heard that its gory and rather stupid, so I have never taken the time to watch it. All the same, the first and the third ones are awesome enough to make up for a lame middle installment.

In preparation for the new one, I watched Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade on my parents' 60" big screen (who needs a movie theater?). I hadn't seen either of them all the way through in a long time, so I figured I might as well. So, when I went into the theater yesterday to watch the fourth one, I was prepared. And it was a good thing too, because some of the jokes are not funny unless you've seen the other ones, as is the case with most every other movie series ever made.

I have to say, at this point, that I really, REALLY wanted to like the movie. I tried really hard. And granted, I don't regret seeing it--but the fact that my work paid for the ticket really did a lot to ease my disappointement. This is a problem that I have with all movie sequels: I go in with really high expectations, but as I've been disappointed before, I don't think my expectations are too high. So, to be fair, let's consider the facts. Raiders of the Lost Ark came out in 1981. That's 27 years ago. The Last Crusade came out in 1989--19 years ago. Back then, Harison Ford looked like this:

And this.












Now, 19 years later, he's a bit older. He looks more like this: Like I said. Harrison Ford is still hot at 65, but that does not negate the fact that he is 65.

One of the other things that I was super excited about was the fact that Shia LeBeouf is in the movie. I love Shia. He is a favorite! And he did an excellent job as the punk kid that he was supposed to be. He also provided some of the best comic relief of the movie. I also appreciated the fact that Karen Allen returned as Marion Ravenwood. Marion is feisty, and the other Indy girls were never as feisty as she. That's probably why I liked her so much in the first one and the fourth one.

Other than that, though, the movie kind of falls flat. The plot line is...um...well, it's not what I expected (I'll give them that), and there were scenes that seemed to insult the audience's intelligence. Do watch out for the Janitor from Scrubs (Neil Flynn) in the first part of the movie. Interesting side note, Niel Flynn worked with Harrison Ford in the Fugitive. He was a cop that got shot on the train. In any case, I say that you should see Kingdom of the Lost Skull, though perhaps you should wait for it to come into the dollar theater, or even onto DVD (if you aren't a die hard Indy fan).