Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

What is all this negativism? Why are some people trashing this? As far as I’m concerned, it’s a little better than Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and maybe not quite as good as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, but close.

Could Indy survive being hurled a mile inside a refrigerator? Hell, no … but he’s Indy. Could he survive going over even one of the three waterfalls he goes over? Not on your life … but he’s Indy. We expect him to come out unscathed. The fun here is in the sheer exuberance of the (real, mostly) stunt work. The chase through the college is very funny (and just how many vintage cars are in that sequence, including a cherry Hudson?), and the truck chase through the jungle had me on the edge of my seat. Cate Blanchett … well, the lady can do anything, can’t she? She is terrific as the cartoon communist (and looks terrific in that uniform, with that haircut; I wanted her to tie me up and whip me, and I’m not into S&M), with the Pottsylvanian, Natasha Fatale accent.

True, the plot was complicated (you come to an Indy movie for the freakin’ plot?), and the ending was weak, as was Last Crusade, and a little overblown with the CGI effects, but who cares? I certainly didn’t. It was also grand to see the return of Karen Allen, who got into a beef with Spielberg and was not invited back to the sequels.
There is some buzz that Shia LaBeouf is being groomed to take over the franchise. Oh, please! The dude is good, and may deserve his own, smart-ass adventure series, and I wouldn’t even care if he’s presented as Indy’s son … but it wouldn’t be an Indy movie. Only Harrison Ford can be Indy, end of story. I don’t care if they bring him back at age 85, in a wheelchair or an iron lung. I’ll go see it.