The Crystal Skull review.

Spoilers ahoy.

I am an unabashed Indiana Jones fan. And, as spoken of earlier, Temple of Doom was my favorite among them. After seeing Crystal Skull, Temple of Doom is in no threat of being replaced. In fact, I’ld go so far as to say Crystal Skull is my least favorite of Jones movies.

That is not to say it is bad. Just, that where the previous films are held as the epitome of action movies, Crystal Skull falls to a level more closely resembling recent competition.

There are 2 distinct areas I think that Crystal Skull falls a little behind the former Jones movies.

First, the villains.

Raiders even gives us the great Beloq. The image of him holding up the idol and maniacally laughing as the Hovitos chase Jones through the jungle is a villain at his best.

Temple of Doom gave us Mola Ram. Let’s face it. It’s hard to top a picture of evil than that of Mola Ram holding up the beating heart of a poor sap being lowered into a pit of lava.

Crusade left us with a lot of villains, but none that truly have a great moment of villainy. At the least, we are presented with the eternal icon of evil in the hordes of Nazis.

Crystal Skull gives us Irina Spalko, the Russian super agent. Cold and calculating, never once losing her cool in a given situation, she is on the cusp of being a real badass. Quite arguably, the villain with the most potential of any of the Jones movies yet. Somehow, she never quite achieves that, and never gets her moment of high villainy, something sorely lacking. I would have loved to see her triumphently standing over the defeated heros in villainous glory. But, it was not to be. The rest of the villains are faceless soldiers we are told are evil Russians. While fitting to the film’s story, they are just not as iconic an evil as the Nazis.

The second area Crystal Skull falls flat, is in the ancient traps and puzzles.

Or, rather, lack thereof.

In Raiders, we got the whole “stay out of the light”, floor traps firing poison darts, pits, boulders, snakes…

Temple of Doom, we got the whole “WE. ARE. GOING. TO. DIE!” room of spikes.

Crusades had the Breath of God, Word of God, and the Leap from the Lions Mouth. Not to mention choosing poorly.

Crystal Skull…well…um…there was some quicksand. Completely unrelated to the quest/temple/anything. At one point, you see Dr Jones scanning the floor looking for clues/traps/something. I was SURE Mutt would trigger something accidentally there…nope. Nothing there to trigger. There wasn’t even the satisfaction of watching them struggle to figure out the clues to open a door, as all the figuring has already happened. We’re just carrying out the motions.

So, there is the disappointments.

It’s an enjoyable film in it’s own right. Indy seems to have wisened with age, and become a more wily fighter in the process. Seems to hold his own a bit better than previous iterations at the fisticuffs. Yet, is not quite as limber at some of the acrobatics. Mutt has potential. It’s nice to see Marion.

I see a lot of complaining about the CGI in reviews. As with I am Legend, I really don’t think there’s much to complain about. Doesn’t look perfect, doesn’t look BAD. I honestly don’t get what people expect from effects these days…

If you like Indiana Jones, and adventure films such as Sahara, National Treasure, etc, it’s sure worth a viewing. For me, it just doesn’t quite live up to the former ones. And that may well be due to my having them on too high a pedestal.

Now, as for Halloween potential. There wasn’t a whole lot to draw on here. The Mayan were pretty cool, but not quite as memorable as the Hovitos. The rest of it was pretty standard from a Halloween prop point of view.