Indiana Jones et le Royaume du crâne de cristal

I'll be the first to admit it is nothing even remotely close to as good as the Last Crusade, but I still enjoyed the adventure of it. I liked the addition of Shia Labeouf and was hoping that the series could potentially continue on with him. Unfortunately the actor dealt with many issues but seems to have them resolved now. Unfortunately the newest movie somewhat eliminates the hope of him coming back to take on the role going forward, although it's still not impossible for them to make this happen if they really wanted to.

Pros:

• still a good Indy adventure
• the crystal skull certainly wasn't as cool as the holy grail but it still had a cool mysticism to it
• enjoyed some of the runaway action scenes.

• enjoyed a little change up from Nazis being the bad guys to the Soviets. Both were horrific totalitarian regimes, just feel Soviets haven't been as exposed as well as the Nazis have in cinema.

Cons:

• after returning the crystal skull I was hoping for something a little more spectacular
• Cate Blanchett I just don't see as a villain, and the accent was not convincing to me.

• sort of rushed into the story.

• no great reason provided why Ravenwood and him didn't figure it out together before and seems incredibly unlikely she wouldn't tell them about their son.

• the triple agent character just became incredibly annoying and wasn't really necessary to most of the story.

I came into this watching the previous original trilogy, and was expecting it to be the weakest, as I've heard and although that is true, I think it gets too much hate for what it is. I actually enjoyed this movie, and although not on the same level as the original trilogy, it still was fun to watch, and with much less comedy aspect, it delved into old flames and potential new comers to this series. Although it was fun they was still times where the plot did annoy me, and it made Indiana look more stupid and silly than he is, which is not really what his character is about. In the end I would recommend this movie especially if you're watching the franchise from the beginning.

The problems with 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull' are manifold and it certainly does not match up to it's predecessors. The film looks too artificial. What worked with the other movies was that, taking into account that they were made before the CGI boom, they looked real. Here the overuse of CGI and bluescreen grafting is painfully apparent. The story is a mess. It lacks coherency and there are too many uninteresting subplots. And, what was with the aliens? Does Spielberg harbour a secret obsession for UFOs? The pacing is slow at times and boring. The dialogues are not anything noteworthy and the action sequences, while some are fun to watch, others are plain bad and again, the prominent CGI stands in the way. With the exception of Cate Blanchett, none of the actors stand out, even Harrison Ford plays the clichéd hero. Shia LeBeouf is miscast. Ray Winstone is wasted and the rest are forgettable. Blanchett is barely recognizable as the sexy Ukrainian military villainess. She looks alluring and I her use of the accent is hilarious. She makes an awesome baddie which somewhat makes up for some of the flaws. Among the few other likable things about the movie is the chase sequence which features some well choreographed stunts. Overall, 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull' disappoints and only Cate Blanchett makes up for some of the flaws.

Many years and the shine has been tarnished, the fascia has cracked like old varnish, though there's still a small spark, that carries some kind of arc, there's enough to enjoy and be cherished.

Many will definitely argue this addition to the 'Indiana Jones' saga was unnecessary and somewhat confusing. But as another film, you can't deny Spielberg's crisp direction and Harrison Ford's slick leading performance. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is visually a blockbuster success, though potholes could be avoided in its story and plot, it's still stable nonetheless.