Indiana Jones - A very late review

This post comes late, in fact too late to be of use to anybody who wants to decide whether to see the movie based on my review. However, since I myself saw the movie very late, I had no option.

Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull comes 19 years after the last Indiana Jones movie – The Last Crusade. Harrison Ford’s age has not stood still over all these years. He is 64 now. And that, in my opinion, was the best feature of the movie.

So all those people who want to see a James Bond – like movie where the hero modernizes with the time and retains a playboy image no matter how old the actor becomes, stay away from The Crystal Skull. Indiana Jones is old, and he doesn’t hide it. His hair is gray, his actions are sometimes not as accurate as old days. However, he is still the sharp minded professor of archaeology who is more fit at sixty-four than most of us are in our twenties.

The movie is also set about two decades after WWII, during the peak of the Cold War. There’s a lost city in Peru where a crystal skull has to be returned. Whoever does it first gets to control its powers… no one knows what that means. And Indiana Jones and his co-adventurers must beat the Russians in their search for the lost kingdom of the crystal skull. The period is beautifully captured in the automobiles on the road, the costumes of the people, the machinery, weapons and all forms of transport. Even the filming techniques have been kept the same as that used in the other three movies, so that people do not see the disconnect in time. The use of CGI has been kept to a minimum, and Ford himself did most of his stunts. To be fair, The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull also has a few very obvious plot holes and unrealistic stunts, but what’s an Indiana Jones movie without them? Who thinks about the feasibility of the action in such a film? At least I don’t! I only go for entertainment and to see breathtaking action.

Without revealing the crucial plot points, I can only say this much: Steven Spielberg has once again delivered a movie that keeps the audience at the edge of their seats from the very beginning. From the Nevada Desert to the Amazon rain forests, the story moves swiftly and grippingly. From nuclear explosions to Mayan ruins, from dart-throwing tribals to man-eating ants, from swordfights to spacecrafts, this movie has it all. It has a perfect mix of comedy and adventure, and enough references to the earlier movies for the cult follower. And in the end, just when the audience felt that Indie was about to pass on the baton to younger adventurers, there was the clear message that he is not done yet.

In short, this latest Indiana Jones movie is a must watch. If it hasn’t left the theatres near you yet, rush and grab tickets. If it is gone, wait eagerly for the DVD. In either case, this is not a movie that you can afford to miss.