Our favorite archaeologist is back in the fourth installment in this classic franchise, but does it hold up to the classics like Raiders of the Lost Ark? Well, you have to keep reading....what, I can't just tell you, then what good would the rest of the article be?
McGuffin-a term coined by the legendary Alfred Hitchcock, meaning an item that determines the plot, or an item the plot is written around.
George Lucas loves this term, and has used it several times, and uses the idea as a basis for the Indiana Jones stories. The McGuffin is the problem with this movie, not the fact Harrison Ford is really old, he actually has held up quite well, and while he is noticeably older, he is still believable as a slightly aged Indy. The crystal Skull is the problem. It's a week McGuffin. The two previous movies had very noticeable items in the Ark of the Covenant and Cup of Christ. I would say most would people would not know that there are legends of crystal skulls.
This movie also has an addition of a sidekick in Mutt, played by Shia LaBeuf. This movie also brings back Marion Ravenwood, the love interest in the first movie, played by Karen Allen who looks really old, by the way.
The movie picks up, in all places, Roswell, NM with Indy having to find a secret artifact...yeah, you can tell where this is going. It leads to a few surprises, most of which are easy to see. Indy does take us on some great adventures that bring us back to the days of yore (whenever that is). The action sequences have not lost a step, and Lucas and Spielberg surprise me by not having too much CGI and give an all around fun time until the end of the movie, which comes across as lame, and leaves the audience wanting the face melting scene from Lost Ark.
I really enjoyed this movie, but the ending is supposed to be the most rewarding, and the best footage in the movie, but in this case, it isn't. I thought Harrison Ford was great, Shiah LaBeuf was tolerable and the movie was pretty good on its own. Compared to the original trilogy, however, this movie falls a bit short.
Check it out, and suspend your B.S. O' meter and have fun.
I give it a 6.5 out of 10.
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