After today's screening at Cannes, the verdict seems to be...
Indiana Jones IV is actually good!
The Evidence:
Variety:
Emanuel Levy:
Others:
The Telegraph
Cinematical
BBC
The Times Leader
Austin 360
The London Times
The Evidence:
Variety:
One of the most eagerly and long-awaited series follow-ups in screen history delivers the goods -- not those of the still first-rate original, 1981's "Raiders of the Lost Ark," but those of its uneven two successors.
"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" begins with an actual big bang, then gradually slides toward a ho-hum midsection before literally taking off for an uplifting finish.
Nineteen years after their last adventure, director Steven Spielberg and star Harrison Ford have no trouble getting back into the groove with a story and style very much in keeping with what has made the series so perennially popular. Few films have ever had such a high mass audience must-see factor, spelling giant May 22 openings worldwide and a rambunctious B.O. life all the way into the eventual "Indiana Jones" DVD four-pack.
Full review to be posted shortly.
Emanuel Levy:
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal SkullB+
"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," the fourth chapter of the India Jones adventure that began in 1981, is not a great picture, but it delivers the goods and is a lot of fun.
The eagerly awaited segment, that took nearly two decades to make due to the lack of an acceptable script, could be described as Spielberg's spectacle for the masses, by which I mean that the movie belongs to the old Spielberg movies of the 1970s and 1980s.
Indeed, blurring all the genres that the maestro has worked with—action, sci-fi, and even horror—"Indy Jones 4" at once reflects and is inhibited by the three-way collaboration of producer George Lucas, who created the concept, Spielberg, who directed all four pictures, and Harrison Ford, reprising the most iconic role of his career.
For starters, all fears and doubts that Ford is too old (he'll turn 66 in July) to play again the world's bets-known archeologist, should put to rest as he gives a commanding performance that holds the necessarily episodic picture together.
Ford not only look good for his age, but acts better than ever, and moves with the agility of a man half his age. Just the sight of Ford, as the whip-toting, punch-packing, snake-hating, globe-trotting archeologist wearing his signature fedora hat brought a huge applause; it's like visiting an old friend of the 1980s.
Shrewdly, screenwriter David Keopp has penned a multi-generational saga that reunites Ford with his old squeeze (Karen Allen, also looking good, at 56) and arranged for him to have a younger companion, Mutt (Shia LaBeouf), a rebellious youth sporting a black leather jacket.
This time around, the saga is set in the Southwest desert—Nevada to be specific, in 1957, the height of the Cold War and Senator McCarthy's communist witch-hunting. In the first scene, Indy and his sidekick Mac (Brit Ray Winstone, excellent as usual) barely escape a close scrape with nefarious Soviet agents on a remote airfield.
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Professor Jones returns home to Marshall College, only to find things have gone bad. The dean of the college and close friend (Jim Broadbent) explains that Indy's recent activities have made him the object of suspicion and that the government and the FBI have put pressure on him to fire Indy—albeit with full salary and benefits.
On his way out of town, Indy bumps into Mutt (LaBeouf), a youth whose physical appearance pays tribute to Marlon Brando's iconic role in "The Wild One" (1954), wearing a white t-shirt, sexy leather jacket and jeans, and riding a motorcycle. Proudly introducing himself as a dropout, Mutt describes his family background, revealing anger, grudge, and dissatisfaction. But he also makes an alluring proposition for the adventurous Indy: If he'll help Mutt on a mission with deeply personal stakes, Indy could make one of the most archeological finds in history—the Crystal Skull of Akator, a mysterious, legendary object that holds fascination, superstition, and fear.
In short order, Indy and Mutt set out for the most remote corner of Peru, a land of ancient tombs, forgotten explorers, and rumored city of gold. As expected, the odd couple soon realizes that they are not the only ones in search of the treasure. The Soviet agents are also hot on the trail of the Crystal Skull.
Chief among them is Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett, sporting heavy Russian accent), the icily cold but devastatingly beautiful commissar who was introduced in the very first act, during a search of a military warehouse. Like Indy, Irina and her elite military squad is scouring the globe for the eerie Crystal Skull, which they believe can help the Soviets dominate the world through brains-washing, or control of the human mind. The "only" problem is how to locate it, and once found, how to unlock its ancient secrets.
The saga's organizing theme is rather simple: Indy and Mutt, later joined by Mary, must find ways to evade the ruthless Soviets. The two groups follow seemingly impenetrable trails of mysteries, grapple with human enemies (primitive tribes that look as if they were taken out of Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto") and friends of questionable motives, and Nature itself, in the form of monkeys, ants, water falls, and so on.
To that extent, the narrative is structured as a series of chases, encounters, separations, and reencounters between Indy and his group, which also includes Mac (a man with at least two or three identities) and Oxley (John Hurt), a somehow damaged and bruised man who knows more than given credit.
Some critics may have issues with this adventure's old-fashioned nature, but I think it was consciously to fit into the general pattern of the three previous chapters that were made in 1981, 1984, and 1989 respectively.
Indeed, with the exception of some state-of-the-arts special effects, technically speaking, the art design, costume, and the staging of the various action scenes have the feel of late 1980s picture.
The film's visual motifs borrow from (and pay tribute to) seminal mythic adventures that both Lucas and Spielberg have made in such films as "Star Wars" (the first series), "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977), "E.T." (1981), and of course, "Indiana Jones" series that began in 1981 with "Raiders of the Lost Ark," the first and (for me) still the best of the four chapters.
Others:
The Telegraph
Cinematical
BBC
The Times Leader
Austin 360
The London Times
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