Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

It has been almost twenty years since we last joined Dr. Jones (Harrison Ford) on an exciting adventure. This adventure is one of the fastest paced and strangest adventures in the series. We begin in Nevada, where Dr. Jones, played by Ford laboriously and quite excellently, has been kidnapped by KGB agents looking for an artifact in a warehouse. One KGB agent in particular, Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett), is a mean Ukrainian who is as superstitious as someone who who works with Fox Moulder. In an action packed sequence, our mild mannered teacher dons his fedora and becomes our hero Indy. He escapes and gets back to civilization, only to be investigated by the FBI. After an interrogation about Communism, our hero returns to his college to become, once again, mild mannered Dr. Jones. When requested to search for an old friend by a kid named Mutt Williams (Shia LeBeouf). He brings a letter to Dr. Jones written by an old friend of his by the name of Harold Oxely (John Hurt). In the letter is a riddle revealing the whereabouts of a certain artifact that got him captured by the Russians. When they get to the grave yard of a Spaniard looking for treasure. What they find is a large elongated skull made of crystal. When they come out of the dirty catacomb, they get captured by the Reds…again. They get to the camp and find Mutt’s mother, Marion (Karen Allen), who was Indy’s old flame. What follows is an extremely weird adventure involving aliens, Mayans, and money. The film was enjoyable, but at times it felt as if it were too action packed; scene after scene of things blowing up, brass music of John Williams’s orchestrations, and wh-pshhh!! But it’s nice to have our old hero back for another adventure.

Grade: B+