Starring Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett. Directed by Steven Spielberg. (PG) 124 min. Opens May 22.
That the opening shot of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull features computer-animated gophers initially suggests that, like the Star Wars series before it, another once-proud franchise has gone the way of the kiddie cash-in. But then, in the wake of two increasingly overblown sequels, Steven Spielberg wasn’t going to revive the Indiana Jones brand after 19 years without some serious consideration of what made the original Raiders of the Lost Ark so eminently entertaining. So, with The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, he’s essentially reverted to the same recipe with slightly different ingredients: replacing one villainous superpower with an interest in the occult (the Nazis) for another (Stalin’s Russian army), upgrading the killer critter of choice from snakes to giant flesh-eating ants and even bringing back MIA actress Karen Allen to once again play Jones’ still fiery old flame, Marion Ravenwood.
But the most pronounced connection is that, like Raiders, Indy IV is firmly rooted in the historical and political context of its setting — in this case, 1957, with the aged Dr. Jones (a grizzled but still feisty Harrison Ford) facing off in an Area 51 warehouse against Russian agent Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett, in full-on Isla: She-Wolf mode) and duplicitous colleague Mac McHale (Ray Winstone, playing not so much a character as a human manifestation of capitalist theory). Soon, Indy finds himself being chased by the KGB and FBI alike — with Spielberg making none-too-subtle comparisons between ‘50s Red Scare hysterics and present-day War on Terror rhetoric — but the political allegories take a back seat once a young, black-leathered tough (Shia LaBeouf) shows up asking Indy to help find a mutual friend (John Hurt) who’s gone missing in Peru. Cue the theme music and redlined maps….
Perhaps in response to producer George Lucas’ recent spate of listless Star Wars prequels, Spielberg wisely never takes his foot off the accelerator, and all the principals are game to go along for the ride (particularly Blanchett, whose Spalko is certainly the most charismatic villain in the entire Indy series). But while a healthy suspension of disbelief was always a prerequisite to approaching an Indiana Jones film, Crystal Skull encourages the wrong kind of suspension — sure, I’ll go along with the idea that somewhere deep in the Amazon forest an ancient Mayan city was built by aliens with superhuman brains (encased in the titular skulls); more difficult to swallow are the eye-rolling chase scenes where cars are driven down steep waterfalls with no harm to the passengers, and where seemingly every soldier in the Russian army has bad aim.
The main reason that Indiana Jones has endured as an action hero is his very fallibility — his adventures leave him badly beaten and bruised, and he doesn’t so much overpower his foes as outwit them, letting them succumb to their own megalomania. But as Crystal Skull forsakes stunt-driven set pieces for CGI-addled inanity in its home stretch, the only real threat Indy faces is the barrage of grandpa jokes.