It’s been 19 long years since Indy last cracked the whip, shot the swordsmen and melted some Nazi punks in 1989 when the first “trilogy” ended with “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.” He’s finally back, resurrected by the original team of George Lucas producing and Steven Spielberg directing, with 66-year-old Harrison Ford reprising his role as the good doctor.
In one of the more inspired decisions in David Koepp’s script, the “Indiana Jones” world has aged in real time. We last left Indy riding off into the sunset in 1938, and we return to that world in 1957, 19 years after “The Last Crusade.” This setting is markedly different from that of the first three films in that it’s more modernized. There are no more muscle-bound Nazis to be pushed into airplane propellers, no more Thuggee cult leaders to be fed to crocodiles, and no more sexy Nazi double agents that love the Holy Grail more than life itself. So who does Indy have left to fight? The Reds.
“Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” tells the tale of Indy competing with the Soviets. Led by Irina Spalko (a butched-up Cate Blanchett), both side to find the Crystal Skull of Akator, a Mayan artifact said to grant inconceivable power (is there any other kind?) to whoever should return it to its original resting place. Indy is joined by his buddy Mac (Ray Winstone) and Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf), a greaser kid looking to find his mother and mentor Dr. Oxley (John Hurt), who vanished while on the hunt for the skull.
It seems that the public at large (myself included) views the series through rose-tinted glasses. The expectations for this film are about as high as they can get.
But does the fourth chapter live up to the expectations, however elevated?
In two words, not really.
First, Ford should be commended for signing on to a film that is essentially a product of fan demand. He sinks into the role easily, seeming relaxed and confident playing the action hero again despite his age. LaBeouf gamely keeps pace as an Indy sidekick and is thankfully a departure from the short and annoying variety that “Temple of Doom” explored.
As for Blanchett, as much as I want to enjoy her scenery-chewing role as the borderline-dominatrix Spalko, I just can’t take her seriously. I realize that her character is supposed to be a throwback, as is the majority of the movie, but the first time she came on screen I had the urge to laugh. Spalko is played like a “Rocky and Bullwinkle” version of a Soviet ““ pursed lips and cheekbones and bob haircut. Maybe she’s just too famous and recognizable. When that Nazi with the glasses and hand scar Toht first comes slithering onto the screen in “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” you can sense how weird and evil he is ““ maybe because he was a no-name actor, or maybe because Nazis are scarier.
In any case, the performances are not the main weakness here. It is the script that drags this tranquilized beast down. The idea of moving the “Indy” world ahead in real time was inspired, and I think the only way Ford would have returned. However, in moving that world from the pre-war era to the Cold War, screenwriter David Koepp injected a sense of unnecessary scientific correctness.
All of the previous “Indy” films require a suspension of disbelief, and this one is no exception. However, all of the plot devices in the previous films (Ark, Sankara stones, Holy Grail) were not justified as to their power. Those objects were simply understood to have some sort of intrinsic power. Without giving too much away, the Crystal Skull’s powers are explained, and it takes away a certain sense of wonder that the original series created so well. When the its power is finally unleashed near the end, it makes for the most garish, over-the-top and un-“Indy” ending that could be conceived.
Don’t get me wrong, there are some cool fight sequences and chase scenes here and there (and a really asinine one that involves LaBeouf and monkeys ““ a complete CGI wankfest). Unfortunately, the plot of this new “Indy,” in trying to update it into the Nuclear Age, is what drags it down, regardless of the suspension of disbelief.
““ Jake Ayres
E-mail Ayres at jayres@media.ucla.edu.