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

My review of the latest Indiana Jones movie is going to be a tiny bit spoilerish, so I'll put my overall conclusion up front, rather than at the end. It's probably fairly uncontroversial that a ranking of the first three Indiana Jones movies is quite clear. "Raiders of the Lost Ark" is clearly better than "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" which is clearly better than "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." I think that "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" is definitely better than "Temple of Doom" and definitely worse than "The Last Crusade." It's good enough that if you are even a moderate Indiana Jones fan you'll enjoy it like I did, but for those not into action movies, you can probably pass it by. From this point on in the review, spoilers are going to start getting dropped, so if you don't want any spoilers, come back and read the rest after you see the movie.

There's a lot to like in "The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." First and foremost, the movie really felt like an Indiana Jones movie. The atmosphere, humor, cinematography, and style of action all feel like they could easily have been put into the earlier movies. Yes, Indy is a bit older, but the movie even manages to acknowledge that gracefully. The opening scene is especially good, and really would not have been out of place in "Raiders" or "The Last Crusade" other than Indy's age. After that opening sequence I was really hopeful that "Kingdom" would be amazing. Also, bringing Karen Allen back for "Kingdom" was a brilliant move. She's obviously the one true Indiana Jones love interest, and she and Ford still have a good chemistry.

Unfortunately, there were some bad elements that kept "Kingdom" from rising to the level of "The Last Crusade" (obviously hoping to achieve "Raiders" level is just wishful thinking.) The biggest problem is that the movie has aliens in it. Apparently Lucas first came up with this concept over a decade ago, and Ford and Spielberg refused saying it was a terrible concept. After many new treatments of the same basic concept, Ford and Spielberg finally agreed. I guess they finally found a treatment that wasn't so terrible that it ruined the movie, but of the four movies, I would say that this one had the weakest concept. Yes, the concept for "Temple" is pretty mediocre, but it never made me actively blanch like this one did at times.

The other weakness of "Kingdom" is that it was the only "Raiders" movie that actively broke my suspension of disbelief at times. One of the people I saw the movie with was Richard Garfield. I had to agree with him when he said that he had to actively put his suspension of disbelief back together after a few scenes.

The movie that "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" reminds me of is "Casino Royale." The first half of "Casino Royale" is really fantastic, as good as any Bond film ever, in my opinion. Unfortunately, the second half really goes down hill, and the movie kind of staggers to the finish. I know a few people who think "Casino Royale" is really great, which I believe is them editing their memory to ignore the weak second half. It was just so nice to see a good Bond movie again, that it's easier to focus on the good parts and ignore the bad parts.

I feel that people who say that "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" is as good as "The Last Crusade" are also engaged in creative editing of their experience. The beginning of the movie is fantastic, but as the alien storyline comes more and more into focus, the movie gets weaker and weaker. The quality of the first half of the movie is such a pleasant surprise that it's easy to edit out the second half, but I think there's simply no way you can compare this movie to "The Last Crusade" considering how weakly "Kingdom" finishes.

Final Grade: B