Review of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) by Briana B — 09 Jan 2013

The Crystal Skull was always going to have an uphill battle. Like The Terminator, Alien and Star Wars franchises Indiana Jones has become iconic and almost a sacred cow to those of a certain generation.

But the fact is, viewed in their own right, Terminator 3 and Alien 3 were very well made and entertaining films; they just never stood a chance because of the inevitable comparisons with their predecessors.

The same is true of this film. The fact is it retains the feel of the series reasonably well and still featuring Harrison Ford and the consummate skill of Spielberg as it does, it was never going to be bad.

The script is the obvious weak point, it really just being a pastiche of the previous three films with some sub-Stargate style nonsense about aliens tacked on, but LeBeouf makes an adequate sidekick and although the supporting cast don't really get a chance to shine and it's a little too CGI heavy I still enjoyed it.

If you look at the competition as its contemporary action adventures rather than the original trilogy (namely The Mummy, National Treasure and Peter Jackson's King Kong) it compares very favourably indeed.

Now we're all just left to wonder how good it would've been if fatboy George (who has proved with the Star Wars prequels that he wouldn't know a quality script if it bit him on the scrotum) hadn't vetoed the allegedly superior Frank Darabont screenplay.

..