The trouble is, we fans were spoiled by the sublime pairing of Harrison Ford and Sean Connery in The Last Crusade. These two were so wonderful together, brining the series to a fitting close, that a fourth movie was never going to come close. Not that this one didn’t try really hard.
Steven Speilberg assembled a fine and well seasoned cast - Ray Winstone, John Hurt, Jim Broadbent and the divine Cate Blanchett are not people you round up to make a stinker. But maybe if you were really serious about using all this combined talent to its best advantage you wouldn’t let George Lucas loose on the script. Lucas is an amazing film maker, but he gets his inspiration from the literary school of Enid Blyton. He is listed as coming up with the story, while David Koepp is credited with the screenplay. Koepp has done some good work (Stir of Echoes, Angels & Demons) but some of the dialog has a Lucas whiff about it.
Nevertheless, the star power gives it all they’ve got, and Blanchett is a wonderful villain as the Ukrainian psycho - I mean psychic - Irina Spalko, all lean angles and sharp bangs. But there’s a feeling that its all just going through the motions - pause for catch up with the plot, time for another stunt - and there is no real heart in it.
Part of the problem is Shia LaBeouf as Mutt, revealed to be Indy and Marion’s son. How could these two have combined their genes and come up with him? He’s the most unlikely product of this match that you could imagine. The moment when his mum, Marion, appears is great - but why didn’t she say “Indiana Jones - I knew some day you would come walking back through my door,” and then slap him hard. The whole reunion seemed like an anti-climax, and is one of those moments when you can actually hear a missed opportunity going south.
They really should have stopped at The last Crusade, and left us with the memories.
I purchased this DVD with my own funds.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Two-Disc Special Edition)
