Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

One of the most iconic action heros in the histroy of cinema is Indiana Jones. The first three installemts were realeased in the 80s were a huge smash making Harrion Ford one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. In the summer of 2008, after a nineteen year absence from the big screen, the newest installment Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was released.

Although there were many who loved the film, there were a large portion of viewers who were left unsatisfied. A lot of people were turned off by its story which revolved around aliens. Although the first three were anything but realistic, there was something about extra terrestrials that many felt did not feel in line with the other three installments and should have belonged in a different movie. This is especailly present in the end that actually features a UFOSteven Speilburg and George Lucas had nineteen years to think of a plot and it can not help but feel like they simply ran out of ideas and decided to throw in aliens because many people have been fascinated by the concept of life outside of Earth. Apart from aliens, there were even more instances in the story where audiences felt were too ridiculous and invoked unintentional laughter. In one scene Jones is involved in a nuclear explosion and manges to survive by hiding inside of a refrigerator. In another scene, a character swings from some vines along side a bunch of obviously computer generated monkeys. Also, towards the end a bunch of Indians attack the heros that came out of nowhere and are easily dispatched making the audience wonder why they were written into the story at all.

Another reason some people were disappointed by the film is the introduction of its newest characters. The most prominent of these characters is Indiana Jones' son Mut played by Shia Labeuf. In the past inserting a side-kick into an already established franchise usually never yields positve results. Although Mut does contribute to the events and story, there were many who found him annoying and felt his character could have been better written. He is not given much debt other than being a street kid who wants to help his mother, and the revelation that he is Jones' son was obvious to many viewers from the beginning of the story despite the fact that it is treated as a shocking revelation in the movie. The villain in the film played by Cate Blanchett also does not receive much attention and her motives are not very clear.

However, there were some positive results for the film. It proved that a story can still work despite the amount of time that has passed from one installment from another. Usually when sequels are introduced after several years, audiences get turned off because it is fairly obvious the movie was made as a cash grab that is going to offer the same things as its previos outings. However, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Cyrstal Skull managed to avoid this. The movie still feels like an Indiana Jones movie and managed to retain its tone and sense of fun as Ford still plays the character just like he used to. The writing and script is also quite good as the film is aware that its protagonist is well past his prime and offers a few quips to ensure their audience that they know its star is over sixty and can no longer move like he used to.

All in all, the newest Indiana Jones flick retains the same elements that made the earlier installments a huge success, but could have used some work on creating a better plot and direction which would have made this a classic like Raiders of the Lost Arc, instead of just a worthy addition to the franchise.