Hear Me Out: ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ isn’t a disaster
Following up a trilogy of all-time great adventure movies is no easy task, but the fourth instalment in the Indiana Jones franchise isn’t the calamity that some would claim it to be.
There are certain films that are burdened with so much anticipation that there is no possible way that they could ever live up to expectations. Ever since Francis Ford Coppola tested his luck by making The Godfather: Part III, cinephiles have developed hostile reactions to any directors who dare to make a new instalment in their legendary franchises.
The delay between the third and fourth Indiana Jones films was not intended to be so massive, but different obligations forced Steven Spielberg and George Lucas to prolong their creative process, where the former was on the best run of his career thanks to Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, and Saving Private Ryan, among others, and the latter was immersed in the world of the Star Wars prequel trilogy.
Thus, when returning to make Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, nearly 20 years after Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade ended with the heroes literally riding into the sunset, it was apparent that Ford would be playing a much different version of the character, and they had to prepare for it.
Even if there wasn’t the pressure that came from the precedents set by the other films, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull had some admittedly ridiculous elements. Between a fridge surviving a nuclear blast, Shia LaBeouf swinging with CGI monkeys, and the revelations about aliens influencing ancient architects, the film was highly goofy, but then, was it that much goofier than its predecessors? This is the same franchise that included golden idols, monkey brains, and King Arthur’s knight surviving centuries, so finding absurd justifications for far-fetched ideas has always been the franchise’s edict.
What’s remarkable about the fourth film is that Spielberg and Lucas were well aware that Ford is an older man who has become grumpy, obtuse, and a bit underwhelmed by the way that the world has changed since he was last looking for lost artefacts. If the character was always designed to be the hero of a classic adventure serial, then putting him in the middle of a 1950s sci-fi B-movie was the perfect way to update the premise.
Although the sci-fi elements towards the end are just as goofy as Invaders From Mars or the other ‘50s films that inspired it, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull has much more classic problem-solving and mischief than it’s given credit for. Each of these films requires a great actor to chew the scenery, and Cate Blanchett’s over-the-top Russian accent gives it its caricature-esque Soviet villain. There may be more humour in there, too, than in the other films, but the heart-to-heart moments between Ford and Karen Allen work because their chemistry hasn’t missed a beat.
The criticisms are more glaring when compared to some of the others in the franchise, namely Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, which pushed the franchise so far into horror that Spielberg actually disowned it, and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny was a slicker, yet hollow continuation that lacked the creative magic of Spielberg and Lucas’ strange ideas.
When compared to the innumerable legacy sequels of recent years that have shamelessly continued their franchises with no innovation, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull deserves credit for taking bold swings.
