The Frame

Indy’s much-anticipated fourth outing, after almost twenty years off the big screen, is a competent enough adventure film, enjoyable as long as you don’t somehow expect it to live up to Raiders of the Lost Ark. Indy is older, but the script thankfully plays with it rather than trying to ignore it, and bringing in La Boeuf as his son Mutt is predictable but effective. Blanchett is suitably over the top as the communist villainess, and I think everyone in the theatre breathed a sigh of joy when Marian showed back up. That ALONE puts Crystal Skull above Temple of Doom. The chase scenes are paced as only Spielberg can pace them, but the psuedo-science jargon gets a little heavy at times. Indy does better, somehow, chasing after Christian religious artifacts. When the climax came here, my friend and I looked at each other and went, “Really?” Really. So perhaps Indy has jumped the shark a little, but the ride’s still fun, and Indy on his worst day is still better than three quarters of what pass for adventure films these days. Plus it made me want to go watch some of the Young Indiana Jones series.
Above Average