Indiana Jones and the Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull……..don’t believe the anti-hype

It was always going to happen. The keyboard jockeys living in their mother’s basement who spend hours on forum sites arguing over the slightest and insignificant details of the Indiana Jones franchise were always going to hate this new film. Why? Because it is new…and it dares to tread the same ground as one of their most beloved series of films. These dopes beg for years for a sequel and when their wish is granted, they call it an abomination. Chill it geeks.

It aint an abomination. It is infact a well constructed piece of escapism. Nothing more. It is what Raiders Of The Lost Ark was, just a fun ride. Now, I’m not going to get into the nonsense of whether it was better than Raiders/Temple Of Doom/Last Crusade….that is pointless talk. It is what it is…and that is…the next installment, as decided by the exact same guys who brought us the previous three installments. It has cool action scenes, some fun lines and a great cast. What else do you want?

I admit that seeing Harrison in the Indiana gear for the first time at the start of the film had me thinking that the dude is way old. There was a part of me that thought it looked kind of pathetic. But as the film rolled on, I was again won over by his charm, and by the end, completely satisfied that he pulled off the job at hand.

The casting of Shia LaBeouf had me a tad worried. It looked to me as if they were simply throwing in the current Hollywood “it” boy to pull the younger crowd, who weren’t even born when Indiana had his last crusade, and maybe this was true, but hell, he played the part well and looked like he fit into the fun of it all.

The greatest decision for me was to bring back Karen Allen. They could have so easily brought in some young actress to be Indy’s new love interest, but they opted for logic instead. It was a real nice touch to have these two back together. I also had no problems with Cate Blanchett….bad accent or not.

There were some cheesey moments. Some scenes that had me semi-cringing and thinking, “geez, they could have done without that” but you know what? I had the same cringe moments when watching both Temple of Doom and The Last Crusade.

I think we have all got to relax and enjoy this film. It’s good old fashioned entertainment.

People who know me will attest to the fact that I think George Lucas is evil-incarnate. I can never forgive him for certain unmentionable decisions he has made in the past, but while his script is a bit clunky and full of cheese, at least he delivered what is without question an Indiana Jones film. He could have gone another way, but thank god he didn’t. Having said that, I just read an interview with him where he states that he would like to continue the Indiana franchise with Shia LaBeouf’s character as the lead in place of Harrison. Dude, just don’t. Let it go. Make something else. Try something that doesn’t involve light sabers or leather whips. I beg you.