Indiana Jones Retrospective: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

After a 19-year break, Indiana Jones returned with Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It’s a film where the fan reaction can charitably be called mixed.

In 1957 Indiana Jones has been abducted by Soviet agents and forced to infiltrate a secret American government base in Nevada. This leads to Indy getting accused of being a communist and becoming a victim of McCarthyism. However, Indy is approached by a young Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf) who asks the archeologist to help find his mother and surrogate father who has disappeared in Peru.

Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was a highly hyped film back in 2008. It was hard to escape the marketing, it premiered at Cannes and was the second highest-grossing film of 2008. Only The Dark Knight was ahead of it. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was met with a positive critical reaction, having a solid 77% on Rotten Tomatoes but the audience reaction was more hostile.

Kingdom of the Crystal Skull came out when George Lucas’ reputation was at its lowest because of the Star Wars prequels, LaBeouf’s reputation was tanking with online commentators since he was seen as the annoying kid from Transformers, and it came at a time when online rage culture was becoming more prominent. This was the time when the Angry Video Game Nerd and Nostalgia Critic were becoming more popular on the internet. Even South Park got in on the act with the infamous joke where Steven Spielberg and George Lucas violated Indy. The film also spawned the meme ‘Nuked the Fridge’ because it was seen as the point that the series Jumped the Shark.

Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was made at a time when there was a revival in nostalgic properties. There were plenty of horror remakes and franchises like Rocky, Rambo, and Die Hard were getting new entries. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull came at a time when Harrison Ford was in need of a hit and the fourth film brought the band back together. However, when Spielberg was interviewed about the film, he seemed dejected and had only made it because of his loyalty to his friends.

An area that showed there was a downgrade was the special effects. The first three films were known for having excellent practical effects and stunt work. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was more reliant on CGI effects. This was most evident when the action moved to Peru since this was the sequence when Indy and his allies were racing to beat the Soviets to a hidden temple. This was the sequence where the Soviets had a large vehicle smashing through trees, Mutt and the film’s villain, Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett) having a sword fight between two cars, Mutt swinging in the trees with some CGI monkeys, and Marion driving a car over a cliff.

This CGI was poor by 2008 standards, and it’s even worse now. These effects had no weight to them, especially when the car went bouncing off a load of trees as it goes down a cliff. It looked more like a cartoon. It’s a real shame because Spielberg has pushed the boundaries of visual effects and his work on Jurassic Park was game-changing, whilst Minority Report and The War of the Worlds showed Spielberg could integrate CGI effects into a live-action setting.

There was some decent action in the film. The sequence in the warehouse where Indy was escaping from the Soviets used more practical effects and it was fun to see Indy swinging around and running away from the bad guys. The motorbike chase around the university had a knockabout feel to it as Indy, Mutt, and the Soviets drove through an anti-Communism rally and the library. A small action sequence I enjoyed was the fist fight between Indy and Colonel Dovchenko (Igor Jijikine) since Indy was fighting a huge henchman and they had a big old brawl. Dovchenko had a particularly nasty fate.

The other issue with Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls was the MacGuffin. The fourth film went into sci-fi territory since its MacGuffin was an alien skull. This moved the series away from its fantasy routes. The use of aliens was particularly annoying at the time of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’s release since the marketing hid their presence and critics were asked not to reveal that the plot involved aliens. However, the film revealed that aliens were a part of the plot right at the beginning.

The writers decided to overcomplicate the aliens by making them inter-dimensional creatures instead of being from outer space. This reveal didn’t seem to add anything to the story and Indy even makes a point that the Incans made symbols for their gods in the sky.

Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was the weakest of all the Indiana Jones films. It was going through the motions and lacked the heart of the original trilogy. The redeeming features were too few and far between.