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

The Return of the Errant Professor

If there is something more dramatic than the 20 years between two Indy installments, it should be the fact that we've been waiting 15 years for a guy like Spielberg to direct a masterpiece (yes, Saving Private Ryan was great but just not enough) or a noticable 6 years for just a memorable one. That was on my mind when I went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull on the opening friday; the anxiety was as much about seeing the new Spielberg film as the new Indiana Jones experience.

When it's not planned beforehand like it's been done for The Lord of the Rings trilogy, making a decent sequel is hard; simply because re-introducing the character(s) in a way worthy of their legacy is a serious issue by itself. If you think about the iconic status of Indiana Jones, the oversensitivity of Spielberg and Lucas about this new installment will make more sense to you. And in my opinion, this re-introduction is exactly what works best in this film.

The adventure starts with a breathtaking Death Proof-esque car sequences and opening credits that made me feel like I was watching a 1980s film - so much for preserving the original spirit (maybe too much?). Minutes later the reunion with the professor takes place and this is exactly the point where Spielberg's genius is most evident. I'm going to spoil it with the comfort of knowing that the trailer already did that before me: In a subtle yet glorious scene, we first see the fedora hat on the dirt floor, then his shadow over the truck and then -finally- the man himself. Spielberg is as enthusiastic at this point as an ancient prophet revealing an idol to be worshipped. All the other characters get their own share of similarly-attentive introductory scenes; especially Mutt the motorcycle guy and the villain Irina Spalko. Without further ado, we are dropped in the middle of all the action and combat, with frequent references to the professor's past adventures.

Let me take a break here.

When me and my friend were buying tickets for the film, two elderly men (let's call them Joe and Jack), apparently in their late 40s or early 50s, were in front of us in the queue. One of them turned to the other and said: "Finally we can see it. I used to watch this man when I was a kid!" This must be the exact sentence echoing in Steven Spielberg's nightmares if he was ever seriously scared of The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull flopping. Therefore it's completely understandable that they wanted to avoid alienating the older fans while winning over the younger generation at the same time. When "finally" watching it, I'm guessing Joe and Jack must've felt like Indiana Jones and the world around him lived on during all those years, and aged just like themselves; which is, I believe, a huge success. There's an overall sense of continuity throughout the film and the presence of the 20-year gap is felt at every heartbeat. It's not like everything stopped after the third episode and at the beginning of this one we are instantly teleported to the cold war era; it's definitely a smoother, more natural transition. In the years that Joe and Jack saw whites in their hair, got married and had children, Indy also got older (and consequently, feels less capable), his father died and the world around him changed dramatically. After fighting off the Nazis, he now finds himself in an extremely polarized world, where everyone is either a communist or a patriot. To be able to spot these changes scattered throughout his life is an emotional strength of the film; which makes the Indiana Jones world (where nearly everything is possible) more relatable. For that, if not for anything else, Spielberg, Koepp and Lucas deserve a congratulation.

However, being overprotective as a parent sometimes makes the kid weaker - and this is definitely the case with The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Spielberg and Lucas were so wrapped up in preserving the original Indiana Jones spirit that they forgot all about the little finishing touches that made this franchise different from numerous other action movies. In order to see what these little touches might have been, you can look through Alan Bacchus's wonderful list of '20 Favorite Indiana Jones Moments' (or some other similar posts in other movie blogs, you can check LAMB for that) and compare them with the scenes in this last installment. See anything equally worthy? I honestly cannot.

When Gus Van Sant re-directed Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho scene-by-scene like a zealous devout, everybody agreed (including Van Sant himself) that the new Psycho was a proof that no one can really copy a film exactly the same way as the original. Same thing happened to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Our case of Indiana Jones, while not equally dramatic, is also similar. After going over what they achieved in the past and applying to their new film the exact same formula that brought them high critical acclaim and worldwide box-office success in the 80s, Spielberg and Lucas attain a minimum quality but cannot create something memorable. They're so shy and afraid of making changes that they don't push any boundaries with what they create. Yet, I think that is exactly what they needed to do if they really wanted the 4th Indiana Jones to survive in an era of gorgeous CGI flicks and numerous other action films: something different.

They had the chance to achieve that, which deepens my regret. The villain, as she's written, is extremely promising; and instead of ridiculing the communist ideals without any basis and for cheap laughs, they could've taken these characters seriously to create a unique dynamic between Indy and his foes that would've kept the show going. In this case, the ending would've been much more satisfying, assuming that they would've done a better job with Irina Spalko's fascination with the 13 kings and their collective mind that makes them stronger when they're together than they are by themselves. I'm not expecting Nobel-worthy deep, thematical elements here but it would've been interesting to see clearly what Irina Spalko is after (seriously, what happened at the end?!) and how it contributes to the communist cause. Indiana Jones franchise has always been simple but never this childish.

Last but not the least, ALL of the jokes were extremely painful to sit through. I remember laughing out loud many times when watching the previous Indiana Jones films, but in this one I just wanted the wanna-be-funny scenes to end without further damage. The plot twist, which could have been a memorable climax, was visible miles away and the snake joke was pure regurgitation. Nothing really felt sincere and natural, except the action scenes which were as good as ever. I think the main focus for this film went on making those sequences with minimal CGI use rather than writing jokes with minimal amount of clichés.

Some people will complain about the story, blaming it for being too far-fetched for an archaeology adventure but I really like the fact that sky is the limit when it comes to Indiana Jones. I wasn't really bothered by the logical and factual errors scattered like seeds throughout the film - as long as everything else is great, logical accuracy should not be a concern for the audience in this one. After all, isn't that why we loved Indy in the first place?

6/10

P.S: I'd like to recommend some articles on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull here for those of you who are interested in some further reading. I have chosen these ones for their quality and the good points they made, regardless of whether I agree or disagree with what they're presenting:

*REVIEW: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull by Luke Harrington in Movie Zeal

*Oie Boie by Rob Humanick in The Projection Booth

*Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull by David DiMichele in The Movie Fanatic

*Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - The Film Babble Blog Review by Daniel Cook Johnson in Film Babble Blog

*Fletch's Film Review: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull by Dylan Fields in Blog Cabins

*Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull by Michael Kabel in Screaming Blue Reviews