Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

DuhDuhDuhDuh DuhTaDuh duhduhduhduh DuhTaDuh

Indy's back! He is back to save the world again. As I walked throughout the theater waiting for the movie to start, I heard the glory of the theme song playing throughout the theater. At first, I thought it was coming from one of the screens, but I quickly learned it was set up on the PA system. Doesn't get much more awesome than that. I was also glad they used the same poster design as the original series.

Indy returns in 1957 in search for a skull to unlock El Dorado, the city of gold. New and old characters abound for the latest adventure. Indy is reunited with old flame Miriam (Karen Allen) from Raiders of the Lost Ark. He quickly finds out that the kid who took him to save his mom is his son. His son is played by Shia LaBeouf.

Skull is loaded with action and adventure as one might expect. Ford is old, but he can still pull off some of the stunts. They even make several jokes about how old Ford is throughout the movie.

The movie remains true to the originals in the fact that they use great stunt work as opposed to CGI for people. The stunt work is perfect and manages to capture Ford as an able, athletic fighting machine.

My first problem with this movie is all the car chases. There were like 3 huge car chases that took up a bulk of the action. Don't get me wrong, they were good, but they gave Indy a more stationary role in this one (cause he is so old). I know car chases and fights are an Indiana Jones stigma, but this one is a bit overboard. It seems the only fighting takes place on vehicles.

To praise the sound effects, I was so glad they used the same awesome, ridiculously loud punches. They are so awesome and just like the originals.

More criticism. I don't like the 50's world as much as I like the 30's world of the old movies. The 30's just seemed like the perfect time to be an adventurer and treasure hunter. The 50's is just a gross hair world. I much prefer the 30's.

Why o why Cate Blanchett? She tries so hard to make me hate her. I don't know why she is in this role, but I can't stand it. I think she is a good actor, but the roles she takes are starting to make me angry. She is showboating her skills.

In this movie, she is ugly with a disgusting outfit and haircut. There is no reason they could not have gotten some random Russian to play the part. It wasn't that essential to have star power in this role. She is really getting on my nerves.

Final criticism. What is this ending? The whole movie is adventurous and great up to the point when they walk into the room with alien skulls and skeletons. I knew it was going to turn weird. Course we can't have a George Lucas movie without some kind of ridiculous alien plot.

This really disappointed me. Sure the first three movies had supernatural happenings with religious artifacts, but never aliens with spaceships. I just found this hard to swallow. It just turned ridiculous and strayed so far from the Indy we all know and love. What was Spielberg thinking?

Despite the aliens and the sub par special effects, I still enjoyed the movie and I still love my hero, Indy. He will always remain one of the greatest characters of all time and definitely the best action hero. Indy is the bomb. I don't need any more Indy's because the originals never get stale.

4 of 5 stars