Indiana Jones and the kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Friday, May 30th, 2008
AGEING gracefully is a difficult art. So, hats off to Harrison Ford and Spielberg for showing that when 20 years pass by unless you live in a soap opera two decades do pass by.
The archaeologist-adventurer made famous by George Lucas, Spielberg and Ford returns as an older, wiser and a little slower Indiana Jones, who remains as fallible and as likable as in his first outing in 1981.
Spielberg insisted that the special effects would be kept to a minimum in keeping with both the spirit of the three previous Indiana Jones films and the period in which The Kingdom of the Skull is set, and this does give the film an old-worldly, hands-on feel missing in similar adventures shot now like, say, National Treasure. This includes a sword-fight between two people balanced on two parallel racing jeeps.
Still, sometimes it’s better to adopt a little change. The Kingdom of the Skull moves at a desultory pace and its storyline has few surprises. And then, suddenly in the end, it takes off in a direction that bears the special touch of Lucas and Spielberg.
What’s also surprising is how many parallels it has with National Treasure 2, released just earlier this year from mythical cities to estranged families. Sure, there is a new character being introduced, in the shape of the young flavour of the season Shia LaBeouf. But even with the Marlon Brando get-up, he looks like he has been plonked in the film from sometime else.
Tags: archaeologist, crystal skull, decades, few surprises, flavour, ford, george lucas, harrison ford, hats, indiana jones, indiana jones films, jeeps, marlon brando, national treasure, national treasure 2, pace, parallels, shia labeouf, soap opera, special effects, spielberg, sword fight