Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Action & Adventure

(SPOILER ALERT: If you have not yet watched this movie, please be warned that the proceeding review contains spoilers.)

Please bear with me and my long introductions as I proceed with my review of this movie.

When I first heard that there will be a fourth Indiana Jones movie, I got a bit upset for a couple of reasons. First, I was of the opinion that even in the profit-crazed American movie industry, sequels generally stop at the third movie. Anything beyond that is akin to milking an old cow to the very last drop of milk that it can possibly give. With each sequel, there is a risk that postmodern audiences might view the movie as being an effort to make more money, rather than a showcase of filmmaking and acting.

There are only a very few movies that go beyond the second sequel and still leave the audience satisfied. It is because audiences naturally expect the next movie to be better than the one previous, and in theory, there is a limit on how you could improve on a movie using the parameters already set. This is especially apparent in the case of movies that have elements of fantasy. When filmmakers introduce an element of fantasy in a film, they have to moderate it in such a way that viewers can still manage to find it believable - more so if the setting is the planet Earth. These two opposite forces: (1) making each succeeding movie better than the previous one; and (2) moderating the fantastic elements, are enough to ruin a sequel if done in the hands of an inept filmmaker.

In the case of the Indiana Jones franchise, the first three movies made is an example of a good trilogy. It followed the same formula all throughout - a bit of comedy, witty dialogue, outrageous action scenes, and religious artifacts of great power - yet each sequel managed to both outdo the one previous, and stay grounded on the particular historical context so as to remain remotely believable. In addition to this, 2 of the 3 movies made use of Judeo-Christian themes (i.e. the Ark of the Covenant, and the Holy Grail) - something that Hollywood audiences could relate to (and in some cases, even believe in.)

This brings us closer to my review proper. By all indications back then, "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" was meant to be the final installment in the series. (Why else would the final scene in that movie show the protagonist and his allies riding into the sunset?) The term "Last Crusade" was taken by audiences, including myself, in its most general sense, and not in the old religious context of the Crusades being a journey of personal redemption (which, it apparently was). In terms of the immensity of divine power displayed, "Raiders of the Lost Ark" certainly had more impact, but the redemptive theme of "Last Crusade" was a lot deeper, and reverberated more. It was, as already mentioned, a fitting finale for the series that was characterized for the most part by light romance, comedy and lots of action scenes.

"Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" was surprisingly not disappointing at all. Where one expects it to stick out as the odd man out, it was almost seamless in incorporating itself into the series. There were touching moments where photos of Henry Jones, Sr. (the father of Indiana Jones) and Marcus Brody (the comic relief ally in the "Last Crusade" ) were shown and it was mentioned that they already passed away. The re-casting of Karen Allen as Marion Ravenwood (who was last seen as Indiana Jones' love interest in "Raiders of the Lost Ark") also helped a lot. There's also the scene in the Area 51 warehouse, where some storage boxes were damaged, and one of them was shown to contain the Ark of the Covenant. It can be remembered that in the first installment of the series, this was shown to be placed in storage alongside other unmarked boxes. Of course, aside from all these, there's still the hat, the whip, and Harrison Ford's "I have a bad feeling about this" line.

As I'm meticulous about historical accuracy, I gave this movie plus points for portraying the American 50s as it really was - varsity jacket-clad college boys, motorcycle-riding "grease heads", and - on a more serious side - atomic bomb tests, and the Communist witch hunts that characterized the McCarthyist era of the U.S. It can be recalled that after the Germans were utterly defeated after the Second World War, the Communist Russians soon after became the hated enemy. Consistent to the presentation of the enemies in the past movies, the Russians were perfect replacements for the Nazis - stereotypically militaristic, tough, and spoke with heavily-accented English.

(On a minor note, "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" rather underscores the fact that "Temple of Doom" is the weakest link in the series. It was the most detached installment in that it was the only sequel that could have stood on its own. Temple of Doom had a distinctly Asian feel to it, with most of the action occurring in China and India. If you took away "Temple of Doom", the remaining three movies would have made a much better trilogy than when it was when "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" was not yet created.)

It's hard to come up with a more outrageous theme to outdo them all when the past installments had already portrayed divine power in its different faces. Thus, I think it was a brilliant idea for the producers to introduce aliens into the picture. Aliens, of course, are simply organisms that are extraterrestrial in nature, and are far from being gods themselves. However, the idea of aliens has always been uncomfortable for the religious establishment and is certainly in conflict with most moviegoers' personal religious beliefs. It is for this reason that it was a good choice for a theme to surprise and to amaze moviegoers. There have of course been many movies that explored the possibility that we owe our civilization to aliens. The novel sub-idea introduced here is the notion that some aliens actually stayed behind and were even archaeologists (which probably explains why the skull spoke to Indiana Jones - an archaeologist himself - and not to the villainous Russian psychic Irina Spalko.)

A brief digression: Perhaps it was largely unintended, but this movie also clarified the nature of the power of the Holy Grail that was depicted in the previous movie. If we recall, the quest for the Grail accompanied ideas of immortality for the wielder who drinks from it. Because Indiana Jones and his father both drank from the Grail, audiences were left thinking that maybe it made them both immortal. With the revelation in this latest movie that Jones, Sr. had already passed away, it confirms that the power of the Grail was something beyond physical miracles.

I'm rating this movie 5 out of 5 stars. It certainly could not be ranked among the best of the best. But it was a movie that intended to entertain, and it accomplished this excellently.