Written by Mitch Cyrus

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Harrison Ford makes his long anticipated return as the swashbuckling archeologist Indiana Jones, nineteen years after his last turn underneath the fedora in 1989’s “Indiana Jones and the Final Crusade”. Steven Spielberg is also back on board as director, with George Lucas returning as producer and co-writer, and John Williams at the baton for the well known musical score.  There's a lot of hype around this one, and Mitch was at the theaters on opening night to review it for us.

Harrison Ford makes his long anticipated return as the swashbuckling archeologist Indiana Jones, nineteen years after his last turn underneath the fedora in 1989’s “Indiana Jones and the Final Crusade”. Steven Spielberg is also back on board as director, with George Lucas returning as producer and co-writer, and John Williams at the baton for the well known musical score.

The last time Lucas was involved with resurrecting an iconic series was the critically skewered “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace” in 1999, sixteen years after “The Return of the Jedi”. So the comparisons are both natural and fair. The difference is that Lucas directed “Star Wars”, where the Indiana Jones series has the guidance of the far superior Spielberg.

And it is a good thing, too, as “Crystal Skull” suffers somewhat the same fate as “Phantom Menace”: the expectations of fans are so high that there is too much time spent playing to the crowd and touching upon all of the “required” bases, and not enough spent on delving into any new territory.

I must admit that I truly did enjoy one sly little bit of homage to the past that opened up the movie; kids in a hot rod wanting to playfully drag race with the lead vehicle in an Army convoy. This was an obvious salute to Lucas’ first success, 1973’s American Graffiti, and the trick definitely brought a smile to my face.

The slyness in that tribute was just about the only hint of subtlety that Lucas placed into the story, as we are soon off and running into what we’ve come to expect from an Indiana Jones’ film; lots of action, spectacular stunts, numerous chase scenes, creepy creatures, nasty villains, surprise reunions, betrayals, and otherworldly artifacts to find.

The film is a wonder to watch, as Spielberg is still a genius with this genre. Then you add in Lucas’ skill with special effects, and you end up with scenes so lifelike that you are taken aback when you get out of the theater and think about how easily you accepted the impossible as real.

In this episode, set in 1957, Indy once again alternates between being coerced to help out an evil organization, and making his harrowing escapes, always trying to stay one step ahead of the bad guys. No small feat for a sixty-five year old man. His adversaries this time are the Soviets, headed by Cate Blanchett in a Prince Valiant haircut she stole from Javier Bardem in “No Country for Old Men”. The Ruskies are running freely about the United States, bad accents and all, searching for clues to find artifacts that will allow them to achieve military superiority.

Spielberg and Lucas manage to throw in a little dig at McCarthy Era Red Scare tactics used by the government, having FBI agents question Indy’s patriotism, even after all the service he provided for America during WWII. Ostracized by the government, he is about to leave for London when a Harley riding greaser catches up with him, and enlists his help in finding an old associate of Indy’s who had been kidnapped in South America.

The young man, Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf), turns out to be the best side kick Indy has had since his father. There is a lot more to this kid than meets the eye, and Mutt gets to take on quite a bit of the stunt work, including an excellent sword fight as two jeeps careen through the Amazon. If that sounds a bit like the jet-cycle chase through the forest in “Return of the Jedi”, it’s because it was intentional.

Harrison Ford has shown in recent years that he is no longer leading man material for an action/adventure movie…but this is such an important role that only Ford could play, so the biggest question mark surrounded whether or not he was still up to the challenge. The answer to that is “yes”. Lucas and Spielberg wisely have allowed Indy to age gracefully, not trying to do what Stallone attempted in “Rocky Balboa” by stating that Rocky was “mid fifties” even though Stallone was sixty. Age has slowed Indy, and also taken its toll, as he confesses to his old friend Dean Stanforth (Jim Broadbent) while looking forlornly at photos of Dr. Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliot) and his father, Prof. Henry Jones (Sean Connery), lamenting about both of them passing in “the past few years”.

Ford gives the best performance I have seen from him since “Air Force One”. He is completely comfortable in the role, and his acting has none of the stiffness that he has exhibited in the last several films.

LaBeouf has shown over the last year that he is one of the best up and coming actors in Hollywood with his turns in “Disturbia” and “Transformers”. But this is his best performance yet, as he is no longer portraying awkward high school nerds, but a confident, intelligent young man ready to make his mark on the world…if he can ever get that huge chip off his shoulders. The chemistry between LaBeouf and Ford is outstanding, the highlight of the film in my opinion.

To add to the chemistry of the ensemble is the delightful return of Karen Allen as Marion Ravenwood. The give and take between Allen and Ford from the first movie were the best scenes involving Indy and any woman in the first three episodes. Nothing else has come close. So it was good to see that the sparks were still there, and the bickering and flirting between them were exactly what I had hoped to see when I first learned of Allen’s return.

So with all of this good stuff…why am I complaining?

It is because of too much “good stuff”. Lucas and Spielberg seemed to have set up a framework of bits from previous movies that they thought the must touch upon, and it was almost like sketch comedy…a thin script just holding things together in between set pieces.

Indy’s fear of snakes? Covered. Shots of Indy scrambling to retrieve his fedora? Check. Running away from hundreds of natives? Got it. Supernatural artifact corrupting the evil villain? Of course. Bad guys getting killed in a disgusting manner? Get the barf bags ready. Our hero having a five minute fist fight with someone six inches taller? Ya gotta be kidding…but we’re not.

It’s all there.

Unfortunately, ensuring that we get everything we expected means that we didn’t get the unexpected, and that’s a shame. I really would have liked to see them throw in some sort of twist, or take things in just a bit of a different direction. But evidently Spiel/cus don’t trust the audience enough for that. So what we get is a very enjoyable popcorn flick that delivers exactly what we want from an Indiana Jones film…and maybe that isn’t really that bad of a deal.

Perhaps they’ll do a bit more of a stretch in the next film…as there was a definite setup at the end for the franchise possibly continuing.

I wouldn’t mind that. And I didn’t really mind this movie either. In ranking all of the Indiana Jones films, I place this one third, just a notch below “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”, and far above the dreadful “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”. Of course, the original “Raiders of the Lost Ark” remains the benchmark that all of these films aspire to be. And even with all of its flaws, “Crystal Skull” still ranks far ahead of any imposter film (yeah, I’m talking about you guys at Disney and your amusing-but-derivative “National Treasure” flicks).

My rating: Frank Ryan (3 footballs).

Rating Key

Otto Graham: Over 4 Footballs. HOF quality movie

Bernie Kosar: 4 Footballs. Excellent

Brian Sipe: 3½ Footballs. Very Good

Frank Ryan: 3 Footballs. Good, solid film.

Bill Nelsen: 2½ Footballs. OK. Maybe worth seeing at the theater.

Kelly Holcomb: 2 Footballs. Disappointingly inconsistent but some bright spots. Rent it on DVD.

Tim Couch: 1½ Footballs. Poor. Had potential, but lack of support led to an overall stinker.

Jeff Garcia: 1 Football. Horrible. All hype; no performance.

Mike Phipps: ½ Football. "We gave away Paul Warfield for THIS?" level of suck

Spergeon Wynn: Zero Footballs. Ubersuckitude personified.