The reviews are in -- and they say the film delivers the goods -- even though
it would've been near impossible to be considered great. I've always believed
on some technical and even story-telling levels, Spielberg, despite his
excruciating weakness for sentimentalism -- is constitutionally incapable of
churning out consistently rotten pictures. For every three disposables, he
comes up with one that demonstrates he's getting younger, not older.
I've seen reviews everywhere today; the one in the more popular Hollywood
Reporter (at least here in CA) is mixed, but the one posted below from Variety,
is more extensive about the difference between product expectations vs. actual
performance.
It dares to suggest the film's opening 20 minutes are akin to "Saving Private
Ryan," setting a new bar for dynamic action pictures. It even says Karen
Allen's character Marion..."is perhaps the greatest Hawksian female performance
in anything OTHER than a Howard Hawks film." Too bad her screen time is
appallingly short. No spoilers, but one curious review I saw wondered if this
was a Spielberg-Lucas attempt to marry "Indiana Jones" with "Close Encounters
of the Third Kind."
-kuz.
===================
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal SkullA Paramount release of a
Lucasfilm Ltd. production. Produced by Frank Marshall. Executive producers,
George Lucas, Kathleen Kennedy. Co-producer, Denis L. Stewart. Directed by
Steven Spielberg. Screenplay, David Koepp; story, George Lucas, Jeff Nathanson,
based on characters created by George Lucas, Philip Kaufman.Indiana Jones -
Harrison FordIrina Spalko - Cate BlanchettMarion Ravenwood - Karen AllenGeorge
"Mac" McHale - Ray WinstoneProfessor Oxley - John HurtDean Charles Stanforth -
Jim BroadbentMutt - Shia LaBeoufCol. Dovchenko - Igor Jijikine By TODD
MCCARTHY, Variety Sunday, May 18, 2008 – Cannes One of the most eagerly and
long-awaited series follow-ups in screen history delivers the goods -- not
those of the still first-rate original, 1981's "Raiders of the Lost Ark," but
those of its uneven two successors. "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the
Crystal Skull" begins with an actual big bang, then gradually slides toward a
ho-hum midsection before literally taking off for an uplifting finish.
Nineteen years after their last adventure, director Steven Spielberg and star
Harrison Ford have no trouble getting back in the groove with a story and style
very much in keeping with what has made the series so perennially popular. Few
films have ever had such a high mass audience must-see factor, spelling giant
May 22 openings worldwide and a rambunctious B.O. life all the way into the
eventual "Indiana Jones" DVD four-pack. ------------------ As has been well
chronicled, Spielberg and exec producer George Lucas went through no end of
writers and story concepts before plausibly updating the action precisely the
same number of years as have elapsed since "Last Crusade," to 1957, smack dab
in the middle of the Cold War. U.S. versus USSR dynamic spurs the dynamite
opening action sequence, in which a convoy of Russian soldiers camouflaged in
American army vehicles rolls into a remote desert nuclear testing base in
search of a coveted object. Helping them in this effort will be their
prisoner, Indiana Jones. ------------------ With an energy and enthusiasm
bespeaking years of pent-up desire to get back to this sort of fun filmmaking,
Spielberg sets the period spirit with a rock 'n' roll-fueled drag race and,
with the characters' entry into the legendary Hangar 51, intimations of an
other-worldly presence. As the aging issue is tossed off with a joke or two,
the sixtysomething hero quickly proves that the passage of time will not be an
inhibiting factor all these years later, as Indy trades smart remarks with the
formidable Soviet officer Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett) before jumping into
action the equal of any of the great setpieces the entire series has previously
offered. In Spalko, the film has a villain worthy not just of Indiana Jones
but of a James Bond film, one who's madly intelligent as well as appreciative
of an opponent she views as a near-equal. With her trim gray uniform, silver
rapier, Louise Brooks haircut and piercing blue eyes, Blanchett provides a
major treat whenever she's around. ------------------ The 20 nonstop opening
minutes include a striking variation on the many cookie-cutter middle-class
housing tracts featured in Spielberg films, this one populated exclusively by
plastic figurines enacting a cliche of a '50s Yank lifestyle while awaiting the
nuclear test to come, one Indy must quickly figure out how to survive. Even
that's not the end of the scene, which runs the length of the sort of Saturday
matinee adventure serial that inspired the series in the first place. Like the
bravura opening sequence of "Saving Private Ryan," this smashing launch sets a
standard the rest of the film has some trouble living up to.
------------------ When Professor Jones returns to his university, he's
informed by his dean (Jim Broadbent, replacing the late Denholm Elliott) that
he's being suspended due to FBI doubt over his loyalty. Indiana Jones suspected
of commie sympathies? And this after he's already told Spalko that "I like
Ike." Another iconic aspect of the decade rolls in with a kid named Mutt (Shia
LaBeouf), a leather-jacketed biker who travels with comb and switchblade.
Between a contrived fistfight and extended motorized chase around the leafy
college campus, Mutt sets the grand adventure in motion by offering evidence of
the possible location of the Crystal Skull of Akator, an object of great
archeological and, possibly, psychic and other-dimensional fascination.
------------------ In a nostalgia-producing air travel montage like those in
previous series entries, Indy and Mutt make their way to Peru, where the action
relaxes in some rather rote creepy-crawly cave shenanigans before the guys lay
their hands on the crystal skull itself, an oddly shaped clear cranium that all
agree is not of human origin. But it's shortly snatched by Spalko, who believes
the skull possesses psychic power that would prove decisive in mind warfare, no
doubt ending the Cold War then and there. ------------------ All this
gibberish is merely designed to justify the battle of wits and weapons, which
continues apace as the Russians collect two further prisoners, Indy's old
cohort and crystal skull expert, the now insane Professor Oxley (John Hurt),
and Mutt's mom, none other than Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), Indy's flame
from "Raiders" and clearly the woman he was always meant to be with. Coming at
pic's midway point, it's a welcome reunion, although written to escalate too
quickly into intense bickering; a few more initial beats of mutual recognition,
to permit the resonance of their relationship to seep back into the
characterizations, would have give the rematch more heft. ------------------
But it's off and running again, with a race through the jungle as the good guys
and bad guys jump between vehicles, duel with fists, sabers and machine guns,
are assaulted by monkeys and ravenous giant ants and, in an undoubted preview
of a forthcoming theme-park ride, plummet down three imposing waterfalls. For
pure action thrills, this sequence rates close to the first one, yet there's
one more to come, a mixed-bag wrap-up that transports the Indiana Jones series
into a realm it's never occupied before but is well familiar to Spielberg and
Lucas. ------------------ For all the verbiage expended just to keep the
story cranking forward, David Koepp's script accomplishes the two essentials:
It keeps the structure on the straight and narrow, and is true to the character
of Indiana Jones himself. Thanks to this and Ford's full-bodied performance,
Indy comes through just as viewers remember him: crafty, capable, impatient,
manly and red-blooded American.He looks great for his age, although it's never
pretended he's younger than he is, and Mutt pays him the ultimate compliment
when he says, "For an old man, you ain't bad in a fight." Allen also looks
real good and radiates the same winning smile and tomboyish enthusiasm that
made her "Raiders" characterization so critical to the film's complete success;
her Marion is perhaps the greatest Hawksian female performance in anything
other than a Howard Hawks film. ------------------ LaBeouf eventually earns
his stripes after a somewhat forced beginning, and Ray Winstone, along with
fellow Brits Hurt and Broadbent, fills out the roster of newcomers as a
duplicitous mercenary who switches sides with each change of fortune.
Technically, film is every bit as accomplished as one expects from Spielberg
and the series. Of the director's key original collaborators, editor Michael
Kahn and composer John Williams return in full form. Production designer Guy
Hendrix Dyas provides some striking creations, particularly the ancient
circular chamber that houses the climax. First three series were lensed by the
great British d.p. Douglas Slocombe in bold, clean images, and while
Spielberg's now-regular cinematographer Janusz Kaminski has mostly succeeded in
reproducing this look, which is very different from his usual style, he still
can't prevent himself from letting in some characteristic flared light and hazy
backgrounds. ------------------ Camera (Technicolor, Deluxe prints;
Panavision widescreen), Janusz Kaminski; editor, Michael Kahn; music, John
Williams; production designer, Guy Hendrix Dyas; costume designer, Mary
Zophres; sound (Dolby Digital/DTS/SDDS), Ronald Judkins; sound designer, Ben
Burtt; supervising sound editors, Burtt, Richard Hymns; visual effects
supervisor, Pablo Helman; visual effects and animation, Industrial Light &
Magic; stunt coordinator, Gary Powell; assistant director, Alan Somner; second
unit director, Dan Bradley; second unit camera, Flavio Labiano; casting,
Deborah Zane. Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (noncompeting), May 18, 2008.
MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 122 MIN.
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