George Lucas and Steven Spielberg were the reasons I became a film critic.

Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is back in action in Paramount Pictures' Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

There, I said it. For years this has been true, but for some reason I’ve always been a bit embarrassed about admitting it. The truth is, I’d much rather say I fell in love with the works of Wells or Bresson or Wilder or Hitchcock or Kurosawa or Lang or Ford or Bergman, and while I have developed deep-rooted passions for all of the above and more over the years it is the auteurs behind Star Wars and Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind who first made me sit in thunderstruck awe as a wide-eyed youngster and got me to realize my future life would be gloriously intertwined, at least minutely, with their own.

It was Raiders of the Lost Ark that was the final, and most wonderful, nail in the proverbial coffin. Watching Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenwood traverse the globe battling Nazis searching for the Ark of the Covenant was absolutely mind-blowing. It was like watching a Saturday morning cartoon but portrayed with real people and places in magnificent three dimensions instead of incredibly inept Hanna-Barbara animation. From the first moment the whip cracked I was hooked, and by the time all the boulders were dodged, the guns were fired, the snakes were avoided and the faces melted into ethereal nothingness the glee I felt sitting in the movie theater pretty much defied description.

It’s been nineteen years since Indy’s last ride searching for the Holy Grail with his father Dr. Henry Jones, Sr., and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t slightly apprehensive about his return. Lucas didn’t exactly hit it out of the park when he revisited my other childhood favorite set in a galaxy far, far away, and while I’ll always give Spielberg the benefit of the doubt lately his films haven’t exactly blown my socks anywhere close to off. Besides, iconic star Harrison Ford is 66-years-old, and the thought of him trying to creak and crack his way through another global smackdown was almost enough to give me sadly depressed nightmares.

While the central mystery at the center of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is mysteriously out of this world, the seniors who are the heart and soul of this franchise might as well have been chasing the Fountain of Youth because returning to the exploits of this fedora-wearing archeological adventurer has invigorated all three of them. While I can’t say the trio has exceeded expectations (with them running so high how could they) they have certainly met them, and for a girl so enamored with both the character and with what it means to her childhood walking out of the movie theater I couldn’t have been more filled with overly exuberant glee.

My happiness started right from the very beginning. It’s 1957 and Indiana (Ford) has been kidnapped and taken to a top secret Nevada army base by a group of nasty Russians led by a lithe military scientist named Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett). Soon fists are flying, bodies are sailing through the air and our older (if not quite wiser) hero finds himself strapped to a rocket shooting through the desert like he’s Wile E. Coyote chasing after the Road Runner.

It’s a fantastic opening, every bit as good as the one featuring River Phoenix that started Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (if not quite carrying the giddy emotional kicker at the end of it that one did), and by the time it was over and Indy made his way back to his teaching gig I knew all my early trepidations weren’t going to come to pass. This is a classy adventure told with spunk, energy, style and intelligence. It treats its viewers as if they have a brain, and if it can’t quite come to a perfectly satisfactory resolution (much like the aforementioned third sequel) the first 85-percent is still grandly entertaining enough I don’t remotely care.

The story this time is a bunch of anciently intergalactic hooey about the search for a crystal skull with supposedly mystical powers which can unlock the secrets of a lost Mayan kingdom, and David Koepp’s (War of the Worlds) script treats it all with exactly the right amount of old school matinee serial comic book relish. The film also introduces a mouthy greaser named Mutt (Shia LaBeouf) who just happens to be Marion’s (Karen Allen) kid, the fact of which leads to an awkward reconciliation between the estranged friends and one-time lovers neither anticipates.

All of this is fine and dandy and proves for some great by-play between the younger up-and-coming actor and his legendary co-star, and the return of Allen is definitely welcome, but the real fun is enjoying all the magically delightful action set pieces Spielberg and company have creatively devised. The best bit involves a mechanized flight through the jungle where bodies leap from vehicle to vehicle and Mutt and Spalko engage in an impromptu backseat swordfight. It’s as good as any of the best moments found in either of the two previous sequels and nearly as fantastic as the desert road chase in Raiders of the Lost Ark, and by the time it was finally finished I wanted to squeal in high-pitched ecstasy.

It must be admitted, the climactic showdown inside a hidden sanctuary is a bit of a letdown. It is almost as if Lucas, Spielberg, Koepp and company don’t quite know what to do with themselves, the last scenes unfortunately evoking more of a Stephen Sommers The Mummy vibe than they do anything even remotely satisfactory. John Williams’ score is not up to his usual Indy standards either, composed almost as if he were just going through the nostalgic motions then if he were trying to mix things up creatively in even the slightest way.

Still, even with this faintly sour aftertaste (and along with the growing fear younger audiences are going to dismiss it out of hand sight unseen) I was mesmerized by Indiana’s latest, and probably last, journey into the unknown. There is a timeless effervescence that speaks to both cinema’s past and to its present while also reminding all of us the future of movie entertainment doesn’t have to be emptily vacuous video game inspired thrills and chills devoid of anything close to resembling heart and soul.

In other words, as the advertisements once said if adventure has a name, then it still – happily, thankfully, rapturously – must be Indiana Jones.

Film Rating: êêê  (out of 4)

- reprinted courtesy of the SGN in Seattle

Additional Links

-  Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Theatrical Trailer
-  Raiders of the Lost Ark Theatrical Trailer
-  Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Theatrical Trailer
-  Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Theatrical Trailer