Twenty-seven years ago Indiana Jones first arrived on the screen in his greatest movie. Since then he’s made three sequels and been subject to endless novelizations, games, and parodies. We’ve gotten to know Indy pretty well over this last generation, well enough to recognize Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull for what it is, a pastiche of the previous three movies mixed together with heaps of nostalgia and George Lucas’s own derivative brand of mythology and alternative archeology.
When Indiana Jones makes his first appearance in 19 years in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, it’s clear that he’s gotten a lot older and softer, but it’s also clear that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg have gotten a lot older and softer, too. Like its lead, its director, and its visionary, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull still has some energy, but it’s bloated, slow, and guilty of repeating itself.
The edgy Indiana Jones is gone, replaced by a tired old man, a former government agent who worries about his job, defends his war record, and clings nervously to the back of Shia LaBeouf’s motorcycle — a silly character who flails panicked in the swamp at the thought of grabbing onto a snake until Shia LaBeouf calms his fears by telling him it’s a rope. Lucas and Spielberg leave in just enough heroics for us to recognize the old Indiana Jones, but it’s a disappointed recognition, like meeting a favorite uncle only to realize that he’s grown senile and can barely go to the bathroom on his own.
Much of the blame goes to George Lucas, the man behind the rewrite of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and who doesn’t spare Indiana Jones from the same ravages he inflicted on Star Wars. Not only is the old Indiana Jones gone but he’s virtually a supporting character in his own movie, which teams him up with Shia LaBeouf as his bratty, long-lost son Mutt Williams, Karen Allen as Marion Ravenwood, Ray Winstone as Mac, and finally John Hurt as a mentally challenged Professor Oxley who speaks in riddles. Indiana Jones always had his sidekicks but in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, it’s more like he’s another member of the Indy gang, which is exactly what Lucas likely intended.
Article comments