Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Harrison Ford, Shia LeBeouf, and Cate Blanchett
As I sat watching a theater full of die-hard movie-goers I could not help but feel the resounding pressure the movie laid upon itself. Before the movie began I leaned over towards my friend and said, "You know, if the movie is bad, people are just going to blame George Lucas. But if it's good, they're going to praise Spielberg." And after witnessing my all-time favorite movie franchise, Star Wars, become almost an entire joke because of the misdirecting of Lucas, I could not help but worry that the same thing was going to happen.
The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, released nearly nineteen full years after the saga's previous installment The Last Crusade, is certainly not part of the original trilogy, but never the less, a sound installment into the franchise. The saga's memorable features - improbable action sequences, excellent dialogue, an amazing soundtrack - done once again by John Williams -and wholly original mysteries, can all be found in Kingdom. That being noted, it was a large relief to realize that the dialogue had not been warped into corny, trying-too-hard memorable one-liners, but realistic ones, and at times, honestly funny.
It seems, though, that the largest concern for Kingdom wasn't dialogue or story-line, but rather could Harrison Ford take on the role of Indiana and not let his obvious age show. Well, his age is obvious, and screenplay writer David Koepp (Jurassic Park, Spiderman) tweaks it so that the characters don't not realize it. LeBeouf himself, playing Jones' long-lost son, doesn't overtake Ford's role, but rather fills in a protagonist role the Indiana works well with (think Short Round, but tougher). Cate Blanchett, however, plays the film's best role as Irina Spalko - a KGB agent sent by the Soviets to find the film's fabled treasure, the Crystal Skull. Blanchett, playing an unusual role as an action-villain, takes the role as deep and convincing as the bulk of her work in other films to such a point that the viewer forgets that that's Galadriel (Lord of the Rings, in case you forgot).
Of course the movie has it's flaws however. The action scene's tend to get lost in the ridiculousness of themselves (monkey scene, most of all), and the movie gets very unrealistic, even for a fictional adventure. But, by the end, you feel a large sense of satisfaction. Because all the while you may wish for Kingdom to be as good as the originals, you don't actually expect it. You expect something good enough, and that's what you get.
8.1 out of 10
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