Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Earlier today I broke my personal rule of not seeing movies on their opening weekend. I went to an early matinée so the theater wasn't too crowded and I was able to find a respectable seat. It was roughly 1/3 to 1/2 full, I'd say.

So which movie did I see? What, you can't tell by looking at the poster? :o)

Ha ha. Got that out of my system. Okay, end of stupid jokes, now.

The reason why I decided to break my rule was... c'mon... it's Indiana Jones. That's Indiana Jones, one of the all time best movie franchises, with the original trifecta of Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas. Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, both wonderful movies, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is more than fit to join their prestigious company.

Warning, SPOILERS follow:

Crystal Skull gave me exactly what I wanted -- a traditional Indiana Jones adventure. Plot, music, dialogue, action, humour, were all what I'd come to expect and want from Indiana Jones. Wonderful nostalgia. I'm already hoping they'll add ever more sequels to the series.

I've always marveled at Cate Blanchett's acting ability, and she did well enough with her two dimensional villain in this movie. I also enjoyed watching Shia LeBeouff -- for the first time after his Even Stevens days -- in his role as Mutt Williams. I have reservations of LeBeouff continuing the Indiana Jones franchise on his own (a completely, wishfully hypothetical situation) but I'd definitely give him a chance.

If I had to choose my favourite scene, I'd have to choose two. The first involves Indy's fear of snakes, and the second is a fight/chase sequence racing through the Amazon jungle.

There were several nods to past Indiana Jones movies: Marcus Brody from Raiders and Last Crusade (Dernholm Elliot passed away in 1992), Henry Jones (Sean Connery)-- Indy's father in Last Crusade, and the Ark of the Covenant itself, from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

If Crystal Skull does turn out to be the last Indiana Jones, then I won't be too disappointed -- the series will have ended on a high note. Even the last scene ended well. I liked the last scene because it fooled me a little bit. Mutt with Indy's fedora, I was fully expecting him to put it on, as a passing of the torch, so to speak, but it didn't quite happen that way.

I normally stay seated until the end of final credits. The best thing about that with this movie? Getting to hear and focus on the Indiana Jones theme in its entirety-- not in partial bits within the film, taking a back seat to the dialogue or action on the screen. No distractions. Wonderful.

I rate this movie 4.5 out of 5 stars.