Loading ...Screen Daily - The world can rest easy - the old magic still works in Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull. It may take some breathless, helter-skelter action to redeem the opening hour’s clunky storytelling, but the first Indy adventure in almost twenty years is like a fond reunion with an old friend and will not disappoint diehard fans or deter a new generation from embracing it as a summer blockbuster adventure ride.
This is money in the bank as far as exhibitors are concerned, but the relief of some critical support will do no harm to what is destined to stand as one of the year’s top moneymakers. Crystal Skull may be set in 1957 and embrace an America paranoid about alien invaders and reds under the bed but Steven Spielberg and George Lucas have wisely stuck to a winning formula.
Pesky Ruskies replace the threat of pesky Nazis, a mysterious crystal skull with the promise of great powers replaces the Ark of the Covenant, and this is very much business as usual in every respect. There is such a knowing adherence to the winning formula that you fear teeam Spielberg may not be able to pull it off. A flat opening fails to match the sheer adrenaline rush that has become a signature of the three previous entries in the series.
A showdown at a hush-hush installation in the Nevada desert introduces Cate Blanchett as Soviet baddie Irina Spalko. Her Louise Brooks bob, Greta Garbo accent and steely manner couldn’t be more of a cliché and it starts to look as if a fourth Indy epic wasn’t such a good idea after all. It takes the dropping of an atomic bomb and Indy’s daredevil escape in a lead-lined fridge to suggest that all is not lost… [Full Story]
