Indiana Jones, and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Harrison Ford and Indiana Jones are back, and it's my first premiere of the year. For the sake of this movie, I'll treat it as such. A movie by itself, and not compare it to the previous movies. That would be wrong in my eyes, people should go to this movie to see this, not to compare it to the predecessors. A lot of critics tend to do that, and that annoys me a fair bit. Rarely are the sequels better than the originals.

So, without further a do, here we go.

It starts off set in 1957, out in the desert, and Mr Jones is in a bit of a pickle after being captured by the Russian's, on American soil. They are looking for an artifact, and they want Indiana Jones to find it for them in a giant secretive warehouse. During this all, we get to meet the badguy (badgirl) Irina Spalko, played by Cate Blanchett. She plays a butch Russian, who is the leader of the operation. I had my reservations about her playing the more rough and tough role, and and accent to boot. And early in a few of the early scenes, it did feel a bit awkward. But it did not last long, and for the rest of the movie, she did first class job. Much better than I was expecting. She did the nutjob of a character great justice.

During the early scenes with Irina Spalko, we also meet Indiana Jones (or Henry Jones if you prefer) played by Harrison Ford. There were a few people saying he was too old, or too something else. Whatever, I didn't see what they saw (again, not comparing to the previous movies). It was still your traditional Harrison Ford, although with certainly a bit less agility and elegance, but as entertaining as ever. Simply, if you like Harrison Ford, you will like this movie. That's how good he is usually, and this is no different.

Later in the movie we will meet Mutt, or as you will later find out (But probably already know, thanks to the idiots who released this sorta big plot line before it was released), Indiana Jones son. He is played by Shia LaBeouf, who you will remember from last years Blockbuster, Transformers. A lot of people, including me thought that it would be his big break, and a big chance to make a name for himself. Turns out they were right, and as he shows in this movie, he is made of the right stuff. He really could have a strong career if he keeps this up. Although things are never that simple are they.

This movie is a colossus sized Adventure. Although weighing in at around 2 hours (so around the normal length for a quality movie), it was not long enough for me. I simply wanted more, I wouldn't of cared if they were sitting around sipping tea (well maybe a little), I just wanted to watch more. It was just so entertaining, and a joy to watch.

But unfortunately it was not all smooth sailing. There were a few things and moments in the movie that were just off. When you watch the movie, I am sure you will know I am talking about. For some people, they will just add to the story, for some it will detract from it. For me, it did detract from it. They were still enjoyable moments, but it was all to familiarly done too quickly, not thought through enough, and seemingly a bit out of place. There are also a few small parts which you may or may not notice where things where off, or where they did not care to explain them very much at all (which would not have taken much effort). But, there were more 'bad' parts than there should be, with such a talented team working on it. You could tell there was a great influence of Steven Spielberg just watching the movie, in most cases that is a good thing, but there where a few cases where I think they tried to out do themselves. I don't know who it was for sure, but whoever they were, I think they just tried to go too far at times, and made it worse. Would've been smarter to have tried to slow things down, rather than the information overload that occurred towards the end.

I thought I knew what to expect for this one, so I suppose I have to credit to them for creating some strange moments which I did not predict, or get close to predicting before the movie. Unfortunately, this one could really been great, and I thought they might have done it, but no.

It gets a 8.5, but really it should have been a 9.5 considering the immense skill involved with the movie, and the great legacy of Indiana Jones. All In all, it is a great movie, but I was only dissaponted, because Iknow it cou;ld've been better.

Not sure which movie will be next up for me, Caspian Prince won't premiere until 14th of June In New Zealand, and then it will be available nationwide on the 19th. Any suggestions about what you would like to see here would be greatly appreciated.