Movie Review: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the crystal skull

Genre: Action/ Adventure
Director: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen, Shia LaBeouf, Ray Winstone, John Hurt etc

The past year and half has seen sequal after sequal of hit movies coming to theatres and most of them have been huge disappointments. There was Die Hard 4, Rocky V, Rambo IV and now it is the Indiana Jones.

Harrison Ford is back playing Indiana Jones after 19 years and I hope this is the last movie of this series by him. This latest edition of Indiana Jones was a sure shot disappointment for me. Hollywood directors seem to be getting old and unable to churn out new ideas and storylines. They are heavily depending on old hit movies and making sequals of them. Come on, the heroes of 80s are old and can no longer conjure up the same aura and adoration they did two decades ago.

Personally speaking I am a great fan of Harrison Ford, but I hate to see him old and infirm trying to act like a 18-year old kid. It can't get any absurd. Harrison Ford should not have jumped into the bandwagon to make sequals like Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone. Indiana Jones definitely looks old and jaded and he has a son too in this movie and towards the end his family gets complete as he makes up with his wife. The so-called action sequences in this movie is quite staid and seems lazily designed to ensure that our hero in not in any great peril. Before the scene is out audience will be able to guess his escape step, there is not enough innovation gone into the screenplay and direction.

The wonder of all wonders, Indy survives attacks from all weapons including an atomic bomb. He walks out even as the atomic bomb explodes in the background, come on get real, Indy's no Superman and you don't have to make him out to be one. I don't know what it is about old heroes, they like to appear indestructible on the screen at least. I would say the movie is completely "laid-back" and is too slow for audiences, even if they are absolute Indy fans.

And I don't understand Hollywood directors fixation with Russians. The communist regime in former Soviet Union collapsed more than a decade ago and here in this movie shot in 2008, the director wants to show KGB spies crawling and attacking American secret army bases. Come on get real, find some real enemies. How much do you want to batter the Russians? They could have at least shown Al Qaeda or Taliban as the crooks or even some mafia dons of the US itself. But no, the crooks have to be Russians and that is what gives these guys some vicarious pleasure.

My suggestion for all movie goers considering this movie is "Don't go unless you are a blind fan of Harrison Ford and Indiana Jones". You can confirm by watching the video trailer of the movie.