Movie Review: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

This completes the viewing of the Indiana Jones series.  I wanted to watch the new one for a long time, but I had to watch the old ones first.

It didn't completely sink in that the movie was based in the 50's until 20 minutes into the movie.  I think it's because it has an iconic actor, Harrison Ford, that is clearly "today's Harrison Ford" in a costume.  I just wasn't thinking clearly because it should have been obvious from the car models and that he has a line "I Like Ike" and that he gets stuck in an atomic bomb testing facility. And the fact that Indiana Jones would be like 100 years old if it were in modern times.

It borders on being a sci fi movie toward the end, and borrows heavily from elements in the National Treasure and Mummy films.  Or maybe they borrowed from the original Indiana Jones?

It's really tough to criticize movies after watching the special features, because they put a tremendous amount of effort into everything.  So I will say that this movie is just swell.


SPOILER ALERT

It has the formulaic story where the spunky kid meets the adventurous adult, and they don't like each other at first, but gain each others' respect.  Then they find out that they are father-son.  But it was clever how the mother was the love interest from the first Indiana Jones movie.  And it's funny that Indiana Jones' main shock is that the boy didn't finish school, not that he actually has a son he just found out about.

The car chase was really good, however it was unrealistic that the boy swung on vines for several minutes at 40 mph and saved the day by landing on a moving car.