Review of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) by Popdod — 19 Jan 2019

It's a fun movie but nowhere near as good as the 1st or 3rd, yet still better than the 2nd. The very low score negative reviews are exaggerated. If you like the original films, this is definitely worth it.

That said, even though the series is supposed to be a throwback to similar historically and culturally inaccurate campy adventure films from the 30s to 60s, so being critical that it isn't realistic is misunderstanding the series, it does push the unbelievable and supernatural (in this case, also sci-fi) elements WAY too far, the worst in the series in that regard, even more than the 2nd.

They overused the green screen and computer generated effects. The Mutt character was really unlikable, don't think the issue was the actor, though not as awful as Willie from the second. Ox is never really treated like Marion's ex husband or Mutt's surrogate father.

The Russian Soviet villains were not as interesting as the German Nazis. The plot plays out pretty predictably. Wish they either used traditional film or a filter making it look like that rather than the blurry white glow filter.