Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

Nineteen years after he rode off into the sunset, Indiana Jones returns to the big screen once more, for better or for worse. Older, slower, greyer and less agile, Jones is still keeping with his professor-by-day-adventurer-on-the-weekends antics. It’s not as easy as it used to be, but he’s still got plenty of sass, spirit and grit to dish out to those who stand in his way.

As a longtime fan of the series, I was always going to enjoy this film. It’s Indiana Jones we’re talking about here. The real question is how much I was going to enjoy it. The answer is “just enough.” At the very least, an Indiana Jones film needs to be bright, loud, exciting and humorous. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull accomplishes this well enough but it meets only the bare minimum of those requirements. When the best thing you can say about an Indiana Jones film is that it’s an Indiana Jones film, something’s gone wrong.

Kingdom suffers some of the same problems that plagued Temple of Doom. First, the artifact driving the events of the film isn’t one many people are familiar with. Crystal skulls, though now mostly dismissed, were once objects of great mystery. The film ups the ante and gives them supernatural capabilities, which is why the bad guys are out for them.

The villains in this film are, much like Temple of Doom, somewhat underwhelming. While the Soviet Union was certainly scary back in the day, it’s hard to be intimidated by them as villains because we know how the Cold War turned out. The Cold War itself was a big anticlimax in the end, so the Soviet threat in this film was much of the same. Maybe it's because the Nazis actually did something with their military might. Granted, it’s also an Indiana Jones movie, so you know the bad guys won’t win. The other problem with the villains is that there really isn’t much character development behind them. They’re there, they’re bad, and they’re there often enough to reinforce that they’re bad.

Also similar to Temple of Doom, there is less globe-trotting and more action sequences that hog up too much of the spotlight and are over the top. Part of the fun of Indy flicks is seeing lots of exotic locations. Here, we’re treated to two American locations and the Amazon. It’s not quite enough diversity for my liking. The long chase and fight sequence in the Amazon rain forest overstays its welcome and becomes increasingly absurd the longer it plays out. The opening scene has its share of flaws as well, which is a shame because the opening scene always helps set the tone for the rest of the film. After Indiana Jones hides himself inside a lead-lined fridge to protect himself from a nuclear blast, my expectations were sufficiently lowered for the remaining 100 or so minutes.

The big action sequences bring out one of the problems inherent to Kingdom itself. Being the modern age, stunts are now bigger and flashier, often using lots of CGI to pull off the most dangerous parts. While an attempt is made to have the stars perform many of their own stunts, there is a noticeable amount of CGI present. These kinds of effects weren’t around for the first three installments, so the abundance of effects shots in this film is jarring at times. Sometimes it felt like they were trying to do too much while combining real actors and digital effects, making the CGI work very obvious and not up to par.

The writing is probably the weakest in the entire series. There’s plenty of wit and wisdom being thrown around but there are also times when it seems like the actors weren’t really sure what to do with their lines. Lucas helped with the screenplay and after the uninspired dialogue of the Star Wars prequels, it’s no wonder his mediocre writing skills show through.

Another thing that irritated me a little was all the references to Indy’s age. Harrison Ford himself requested there be more references to Indy’s age and fading abilities throughout the film but it became something of a running gag that didn’t sit well with me. Perhaps it’s because, subconsciously, we find something very wrong about seeing out heroes get older. The first three Indiana Jones films were made over a nine-year period when Harrison Ford was young and vibrant. Ford hasn’t lost his any of his charm and grit but seeing wrinkles and grey hair on our beloved hero is sobering. Heroes are supposed to be timeless, making James Bond’s continual reinvention every so often seem all the smarter. Such a recasting would have been inconceivable, so credit must be given for making the most out of what the filmmakers had available to them.

In the end, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is one part reunion (seeing the return of Marion Ravenwood) and one part continuation of the action-adventure saga. Thankfully, it does not appear as if George Lucas and Steven Spielberg intended to use the film as a launching pad for spinoffs focusing on young star Shia LaBeouf. While the door doesn’t entirely shut on the possibility of yet another sequel, the film ends on a note that could signify the end of the Indy era.

I think that most fans of Indiana Jones never really wanted there to be a fourth movie. Instead, I think that many of us were simply in love with the idea that there could be a fourth movie. Upon receiving Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I think there are a number of us who wish we could give it back, myself included. It’s the weakest in the series and may undermine some of the magic of the original three but it is another dose of Indiana Jones, which can’t possibly be a bad thing.

RATING: 3 out of 5

Babes in Toyland (1986)

A made-for-TV movie featuring some of the most popular young stars of the day, Babes in Toyland is a modern take on the Victor Herbert operetta. Featuring very few of the original songs, this movie is a very loose adaptation of the original stage production, tweaked in various ways to make it work for the small screen. Unfortunately, the end result is an uninspired mess that misses the mark on many levels.

TV movies are held to a slightly different set of standards but they are still considered movies to me. Movies made for the small screen always have low budgets and the visual effects and props usually suffer. I try to take this sort of thing into account when I watch a made-for-TV movie. Still, in terms of what was possible back in 1986, Babes in Toyland is weak.

Drew Barrymore stars as Lisa Piper, a girl who has very little time for toys because she has to help pitch in for her family. One night, she is riding home with her sister and the boy her sister likes when a blizzard strikes and their car goes off the road. Lisa is transported into the magical world of Toyland, where toys are life size and characters from Mother Goose’s fairy tales populate the village.

The problem is that things are oversimplified in Toyland. I’m not sure if that’s the point or not though, as I have not seen the stage production or any of the prior film adaptations of it. But to me, it seems silly and campy for the 11-year-old lead to come up with all the best ideas, leaving the adults to smile and say “Ooooh!” like a bunch of simpletons. I can see how it might appeal to kids, which is certainly what they were going for, but it still rubs me the wrong way.

The effects are bad, even by TV movie standards, and the costumes are all a little too much. The cast either overacts or under-acts, leaving the finished product feeling like a bipolar mishmash of camp and boredom. The characters in Toyland are exaggerated versions of their counterparts in the real world as well.

What I took away from Babes in Toyland most of all was how similar it is to The Wizard of Oz. As it would turn out, the operetta was written in response to the success of a stage production of The Wizard of Oz. It replicated the same basic premise but changed things enough to avoid any accusations of plagiarism. With this in mind, it’s hard to imagine any version of Babes in Toyland rating too exceptionally high.

While the original story is a bit of a rip-off itself, the 1986 version of Babes in Toyland feels like an uninspired modernization of something that was probably much better. Still, it’s a TV movie. Had this been a major release, I would have torn it to pieces with my rating scale. Since it was a small screen affair, I’ll be nice.

RATING: 2 out of 5

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

After the dark-toned journey of Temple of Doom, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg bring the beloved Indiana Jones back into the light for one last hurrah. Featuring plenty of girls, guns and globetrotting, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade pulls out all the stops and recreates most of the magic that captivated audiences in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Trilogies are oftentimes fickle things. The original is almost always the best, the second installment usually disappoints to a degree (though there are exceptions), and the third chapter can go either way. This film closes out the Indiana Jones trilogy in the best way possible- returning to its roots.

Last Crusade recaptures the light-hearted heroic swagger of old adventure serials that made Raiders of the Lost Ark so fun. Indy’s got his sass back and Harrison Ford oozes charm from start to finish. The Nazis are back as the chief antagonists, seeking an artifact with great power. Said artifact is the fabled Holy Grail; something that Western audiences can easily wrap their heads around. To cap it all off, Indy travels to several gorgeous foreign locales, including Venice, Berlin and Petra (serving as the exterior of the fictional resting place of the Grail).

There are enough differences to prevent this film from feeling too formulaic though. The opening segment once again shows Indy chasing after an artifact but it occurs in Indy’s youth. This opening segment serves a dual function- it shows how Indy first got into high-stakes artifact chasing adventures and it also sets up his relationship with his father, who plays an important part in the film. The addition of Henry Jones is a welcome breath of fresh air as well. Instead of flirting with a woman or bossing around a kid, Indy has met his equal in his father. Sean Connery and Harrison Ford have brilliant chemistry on the screen.

While I normally get annoyed when father-son conflict resolution is injected into an otherwise good plot, I didn’t mind it one bit during this film. Indy’s issues with his father are legitimate but handled with enough light-heartedness that it never becomes the kind of thing you roll your eyes at. Their bonding never seems forced, which makes it more effective, I think.

One of the problems with Temple of Doom was that its action sequences sometimes went a bit too far over the top. Perhaps this was to make up for the dark tone. Fortunately nothing in Last Crusade approaches the level of silliness as the mine cart chase or the airplane/raft escape. The action pieces are spectacular but don’t steal the show. The focus remains the characters that we love to root for.

Some of the special effects in this film show their age quite a bit but they were pretty good when the film first came out. Sometimes this is a hard issue to see around, particularly with older movies where the bluescreen work is painfully obvious. Having grown up with movies from the 80s and 90s though, it is pretty easy for me to gauge the quality of the effects based on my knowledge of other films from the same era. So Last Crusade does pretty well in that department, despite looking silly 20 years later.

Reviews for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade were somewhat mixed when it was released but it has been embraced by fans of the original. Not everyone prefers this third installment to Temple of Doom but most of us Indy fans do. I’m a sucker for this film. In some ways it is more fun than Raiders but, when you get right down to it, the original set the tone for the series. This film saw the Indy series seemingly finish on a high note that lasted for 19 years. Last Crusade redeems the series from Temple’s bleakness by borrowing just enough of what Raiders did right with a helping of originality mixed in.

RATING: 4 out of 5