Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL (2008) - May 18, 2008
Not too shabby! Maybe it's because I was expecting the worst and significantly lowered my expectations, but I actually enjoyed this film quite a bit. My biggest fear -- that Spielberg-ruiner Janusz Kaminski's fingerprints would be all over the film -- proved to be mostly unfounded, as he actually did manage to reign himself in and did a decent enough job of aping the look of the first three films. My other fear, that Harrison Ford is simply too old and gruff to convincingly step back into Indiana Jones' shoes, was also happily laid to rest; Ford managed to be as charismatic as ever, and is in good enough shape that he didn't look at all out of place in the usual assortment of fistfights and over-the-top stunts. Shia LeBeouf was another pleasant surprise, and actually turned out to be a fairly good sidekick for Indy. This was far from a perfect film (it's a bit slower than the previous films, and perhaps a tad overlong. Also, the inclusion of some overtly sci-fi elements towards the end felt a bit out of place) -- it is the weakest of the series so far, but not at all by the wide margin I had feared. Good stuff. ***1/2