After nearly twenty years, another installment of the Indiana Jones series has been released into theaters. I have very vivid memories of seeing ads in the newspaper for Raiders of the Lost Ark and begging my Dad to take us. For some reason I just knew it was going to be awesome. Today, the ending of Raiders looks almost silly with clearly wax sculpture faces melting away under a dash of mystical light that would eventually cause Belloq’s head to explode, but back in the early 80’s to a seven year old it was scary as hell. Less than a decade later, I would eventually see two other installments which further cemented my love of The Man In The Hat.

Needless to say, I had high expectations from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Last night, I went to the theater to see what Spielberg and crew came up with. I went into the theater last night pumped-up and excited, and I left feeling the same exact way. I seriously left like a kid on Christmas Eve. Despite it’s sci-fi under pinning, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull fits happily into the series and does not disappoint. This review is spoilerific, so if you haven’t seen it yet…well, you’ve been warned.

The first thing you need to get into your head is that there is indeed a large sci-fi element to KotCS. The line of reasoning was that since the film was taking place in the late 50’s, when the Red Scare was running rampant in America, science fiction films and rampaging aliens were the headlines at movie houses. I think it was a smart move to incorporate this angle into the series to give it a fresh take and to firmly plant it into its time period.

Indy has clearly aged, and they make no bones about that fact. Harrison Ford does an awesome job reprising the role of Indy and plays it with a touch more wry wit than before. What is even better is how Indy’s missing years seem to have been spent. Apparently, he served in WWII as a colonel, and pretty much every character now refers to him as “Henry”. We are shown in a touching scene where Indy is reflecting on the past year of his life that both his father and close friend, Marcus Brody, have died. It’s clear here that Indy is not the same man that he was in Raiders. Throughout the film, multiple parallels are carefully drawn between how Indy acts presently and how his father was in Last Crusade.

When I first saw Transformers, I knew Shia LeBeouf was going to fit in well with Harrison Ford. There was a scene in Transformers where Shia’s character, Spike, thinks he’s talking to a cop in a squad car that turns out to be a Decepticon. As it begins to attack him by revving its engines and knocking him to the ground, I suddenly recalled the fight scene in Raiders with the Bald German. Shia does a damned good job of filling in the role as Indy’s son and at the same time putting his own stamp on the series. I’m gonna say it right here: I’m a fan of Shia.

Cate Blanchett plays the cold as ice villainess, Irina Spalko, who is obsessed with the paranormal. She certainly steals the scene every time she’s on screen as she plays the character to the hilt.

The action scenes are damned awesome, and the stunts are amazingly choreographed. There’s a healthy amount of CGI in here too, which I understand is taking some flack. Now there’s suddenly “too much CGI” in an action movie? This completely boggles my mind. Should we go back to matte painting them into a background and not move the camera anymore like what was done in the early 80’s? There was only one scene in particular that was almost video game-ish, which I’ll get to below.

Needless to say, it’s not a perfect movie. The scene where Mutt suddenly realizes he’s Tarzan, starts swinging on vines like a pro, and ordering monkeys to attack the Russians is certainly a strange moment. It springs out of no where and I’m assuming it’s in there solely for the kiddies. I also had trouble with Marion’s character. I loved her spunky performance in Raiders. Here she seems too happy-go-lucky for a woman who had the love of her life walk out on her not once but twice and who’s life was currently being threatened.

I also felt that Indy’s party was getting a bit too big and ungainly. John Hurt’s character, Professor Oxley, became superfluous the moment Indy had his mind meld with the Crystal Skull. At the moment, Indy knows what to do and essentially where to go. I also don’t see the need for Ray “Beowulf” Winstone’s McHale. He served very little purpose and his triple-crossing seemed out of left field.

Much like the previous Indy films, this one contains super-natural, or in this case extra terrestrial, themes which are based on real life folklore and customs. The alien aspects of KotCS is firmly rooted in current Mayan and Egyptian lore as well as inspired from human remains of early civilization. It’s often written that the building of the pyramids and the advanced civilization of the Mayans was perhaps influenced by extra terrestrial life. As was shown in the film during the catacomb scene, the practice of binding infants’ skulls to shape them into a cone-like structure is indeed fact. Other examples can be found in early Asian cultures as women’s feet were bound at an early age to create a slimmer and thus more “beautiful” appearance.

The science fiction undertones of Crystal Skull are as justifiable as an army of spirits arising from the Ark to sweep the Nazis away in a storm of fire, or just as believable that Mola Ram can pull the heart out of a human sacrifice and still have him live…until plunging him into a lake of molten lava of course. The fact is the Indy movies are all about over the top action with a healthy dose of mysticism and of the impossible. Theses movies are not about solving the world’s problems. They are about kick ass action and fun, and they have single handedly elevated the genre to what it is today.

Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is not Raiders of the Lost Ark. Raiders will never be duplicated and for good reason. It is a one of a kind film that had the perfect mix of action, grit, realism, humor, and imagination. The other Jones movies each have varying degrees of this concoction, but each one stands as its own unique film.

I had a great time watching this fourth outing with Indiana Jones and crew. I feel like there’s a million and one things I want to say about KotCS, but I’ll leave it as is for now. I do wonder what is in store in the future. It was heavily implied that Mutt will take the reins as the head adventurer; however, Indy stealing his hat back at the end put a firm stamp on who’s still the boss of the Jones family. I wouldn’t have it any other way.