My rating: | IMDB

Notice: Spoilers are abundant.

Indiana Jones is back! A little bit older, a little bit wiser (perhaps?), but definitely not less adventurous. Harrison Ford dons the famous hat and whip once more, and this time he teams up with young greaser Mutt (Shia LaBeouf) and blast from the past Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) to fight none other than a group of Russian communists, headed up by the rather scary Irina Spalko, excellently portrayed by the ever lovely Cate Blanchett.

We meet up with Indy in the Nevada desert, where he has been kidnapped by the Russians to help them find a mysterious artifact in a military warehouse. After some not so gentle persuasion, he leads them to a crate containing an extra-terrestrial, which seems to be strongly magnetic. Of course, Indy tries to escape, but his initial attempt is foiled by his partner Mac, who turns out to have sided with the Russians for financial purposes. However, Indy being Indy, he manages to escape.

Back home, Indy finds himself the subject of an FBI investigation, which causes him to lose his job at the university. Upon leaving, he is approached by Mutt, who urges him to help him find an old colleague, Harold Oxley (John Hurt), who has vanished after the discovery of a crystal skull in Peru. The two travel to Peru, and find clues as to where the skull might be: in the grave of Francisco de Orellana, a Spanish conquistador. What they find there is astonishing - a one-piece crystal skull, elongated, and highly magnetic. The Soviets once more catch up with Indy and Mutt, and they are taken to the Soviets camp, where they are also holding a slightly muddled Oxley, as well as Mutt’s mother, Marion, who reveals that Mutt is actually Indy’s son. Yeah, we didn’t see that one coming.

The foursome manage to escape the Soviet camp, and a fast car chase in the jungle ensues. Eventually, Indy & co get away from the Soviets with a little help from some rather fearsome ants, and, together with Mac (who is now revealed to be a double agent and not on the Soviets’ side) find their way to the lost city where the crystal skull belongs. Inside, they find thirteen crystal alien skeletons, one missing its skull. The Soviets show up again, and Mac is now revealed to be a TRIPLE agent and actually on the Soviet side. Again. Spalko places the skull on top of the last skeleton, and it starts speaking Mayan to them, using Oxley as its medium. It tells them it wants to give them a great gift. Spalko, who is a Soviet intelligence officer, tells it she wants to know everything. Big mistake, Irina. The thirteen aliens merge into one as a portal to another dimension appears over the room, and they start feeding Spalko everything they know - too much for a mere human. The overload of information causes Spalko to ignite and disintegrate, while our heroes (plus the triple agent Mac) make their way out of the crumbling temple. Safely outside, the four (Mac didn’t make it, that’s what you get for doubling and tripling, dude) witness a giant flying saucer taking off from the temple debris.

Back in the civilized world, Indy and Marion get married. The movie ends with a scene where Indy’s hat blows off the dumbwaiter, and Mutt is about to pick it up and put it on. Before he can do so, however, Indy takes it off him.

Well. Where to begin? With that last scene, it is pretty obvious that they are setting the stage for more movies. However, I read an interview with George Lucas where he said that he’d only make a new Indy movie if he came up with a really good story, and so far he hasn’t.

I’m not a big fan of the Indiana Jones movies. I’m not an un-fan either, I’m just more or less ambivalent towards them, and as such I had pretty low expectations towards this one. I was pleasantly surprised though, as I often am. The movie provided good entertainment, a few light laughs (mostly Mutt-related) and a whole lot of cheesy action scenes, all in good Indiana Jones style. The actors did pretty good as well, but then again - can it ever go horribly wrong with Harrison Ford (I’m not going to mention that movie you did with Anne Heche, Harrison. Let’s just forget about that one, ok?) and Cate Blanchett? Shia LaBeouf did quite well too - I read somewhere that he was so psyched about being asked to be in an Indiana Jones movie that he didn’t even read the script or ask which part he was to play before he signed up. That’s the kind of enthusiasm all actors should bring to a movie, it makes their performance all that much better.

All in all a good movie - I don’t think the Indiana Jones fans of the world will be disappointed, and those of us who just enjoy action/adventure movies for what they are will surely get our money’s worth.

Belief, Dr. Jones, is a gift you have yet to receive. My sympathies. - Irina Spalko