Reviews by Matt

In the past few years there has been a revival of the movie heroes of old. Rocky Balbola, John Rambo, John McClane have all graced the silver screen ten or more years since the last movie. None excited me more than the return of Dr. Henry “Indiana” Jones Jr. this past May.

The movie opens with Indiana (Harrison Ford) being forced to help the Soviets and Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett) find the crystal skull within Area 51. When he escapes he thinks his troubles are over, but when Mutt (Shia LaBeouf), tells him that his mom has been captured and that he has a coded message from an old friend Professor Harold Oxley (John Hurt), he finds himself once again fighting to keep an ancient artifact safe from evil.

Indy decides to help by finding the crystal skull before the Soviets. The Soviets get wind of this and catch up with Indy and force him to take them to the ancient Myan city where the skull’s power can be unleashed. They use Mutt’s mom, and Indiana’s old flame Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allan) to get him to cooperate.

We all know Harrison Ford can act and he does a great job with the action even at the ripe old age of 65. Shia Labeouf adds very little to the series and comes off as a guy who is trying to be like Marlon Brando from “The Wild One” Look at any pictures of his character and you will know what I mean. It is awesome to see Karen Allen reprise her role as Marion. The action is worthy of the Indy name.

Now that I got all that out of the way, I need to address what I know will be issues with fans of the originals.

Many fans are going to be very very angry at this movie. Many will see it as a horrible addition to the Indiana Jones franchise. There is more computer animation than in the others, “the MacGuffin” (the item the movie revolves around. The Ark of the Covenent, The Holy Grail for example) is not a very good one for this type of movie. The end of the movie will and has sent fans into fits of rage.

Here is what you have to realize; it is only a movie.

If you go into the theater expecting it to be the best of the series, you will be disappointed. It is the weakest of the series, but it was still very enjoyable. All the things that made the originals great; action, mystery, humor, drama and Indiana Jones over coming the odds are still there, but they do not work to the same effect as the once did.

It may not be the best resurgence of an old hero, it may annoy many of the fans, but it is still a great popcorn flick and is worth the trip to the theater. While it was nice to see Indy back on the big screen, more could have been done to make the story stronger and the action less reliant on the computer.

7 out of 10
Rated PG-13 for adventure violence and scary images.
122 min