Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

What can I say? I was so looking forward to this movie. Indiana Jones back in the saddle, battling diabolical rivals, swinging through the air with his trusty fedora on, keeping the world safe from the forces of Darkness. But I was so disappointed. You would think I would have learnt something from the Star Wars prequels debacle. A classic, beloved trilogy, a gap of more than a decade, the presence of George Lucas near a script. I really should have seen what was clearly a recipe for disaster.

What were they thinking? What was I thinking? Harrison Ford is only a year younger than my Dad (sorry Dad). I just reconcile that with Indy leaping into a truck full of Russian Commandos and beating the living daylights out of them! Sure he looked a bit older and he made a few quips about his age and all that but in this case I just was not willing to suspend my disbelief of his unbelievable strength, stamina and agility. While all 3 previous movies had outrageous action scenes and stunts, this time I could only groan when the heroes plunged down a huge waterfall in an amphibious jeep, only to land within feet of each other, with barely a bruise on them. There were some cool scenes (the bike chase through Princeton for example) and some good lines here and there but it just didn’t cut it. It was better as a sequel than than Star Wars 1,2 and 3 were as prequels but that is not saying much , is it? I would even go as far as to say that the original Mummy was a better sequel to the original movies than Crystal Skull although Brendan Fraser is no Harrison Ford.

A few weeks after watching the movie and still with a bitter taste in my mouth I wondered if it was actually just me and not the movie. Perhaps my movie tastes have matured. I don’t like Slasher movies much anymore, had the same happened with the action adventure genre? Working on this premise I got out Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade with my weekly instalments of 4400, Bob the Builder and Ultraman. Was I right, had I “grown up” as a film fan? No fear, the Last Crusade was still amazing. Ford and Connery were still a great pairing, the Nazi’s were still as villainous as ever and the logic centres of my brain quietly joined the rest of the grey matter on the sofa, not even raising a wee sigh when Indy made his leap of faith over the abyss to secure the grail or when the German fighter plane crashed into the tunnel, racing past our hero in flames. Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull just didn’t cut it. ‘Nuff said.