Midnight Showing of Indy!

Warning: some minor spoilers for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull!

The growing popularity of artsy European-style film festivals means that Hollywood celebrities and critics have forgotten how to enjoy fun movies. If it's not existential or over-the-top witty or just downright depressing, movies are deemed childish, droll, uninteresting. Admittedly, there was less fanfare at Cannes coming out of the premier of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (horrendous name aside) than going in, which proves my point.

George Lucas told people not to expect the greatest movie of all time. He told people to expect an Indiana Jones movie. On this point, LucasFilms delivers once again.

Right down to the classic Paramount logo that graces the beginning of the film, fading into a scene of the movie in characteristic Indy fashion, The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is 100% Indiana Jones. There's whip swinging and chases done with vintage-era cars. There are hat-saving enterprises and wonderfully foreign bad-guys. This time, our beloved Indy is a decorated Colonel, having done his patriotic duty in World World II as a spy in Germany (reminiscent of his comments in previous movies: "Nazis, I hate these guys") only to be captured by his comrades, the affable Russians, in their search for paranormal power. They are led by the ever-outstanding Cate Blanchett, playing a believable Russian who, like the Walter Donovans and Nazis before her, is driven not so much by the search for world domination (though it doesn't hurt), but by the almost academic need for knowledge of and control over the otherworldly, this time secrets held in Area 51 and ancient Peruvian temples.

Harrison Ford once again thrusts himself readily into the role of Professor Indy, and the drive of academic curiosity that got Karen Allen, reprising her role as the sassy Marion Ravenwood, into trouble in Raiders of the Lost Ark, hits home for all those who hang out with any real archaeologists. Discovery wins out over personal safety every time, and Ford embodies this drive with gusto. The nostalgic nods to Dr. Henri Jones and the late Marcus Brody are well deserved and well placed, bringing a tear to the eyes of longtime fans.

The dialog and sometimes over-the-top acting is right out of the 80s action film genre, as it should be as a revival of the Indiana Jones series (it feels odd not to say "Trilogy" doesn't it?), and even the clever dusty cinematography screams classic Indy. Unfortunately, Lucas can't help but to insert his mastery of his own paranormal nemesis: computer animation. The only time this really becomes a problem (aside from all of the new and redone Star Wars movies), is a deplorable toast to Tarzan, which adds nothing to the plot or the action sequence except to make fans squirm uncomfortably at the fallacy. Anthropologically speaking, one of the greatest shortcomings of the movie is not the complete lack of historical and archaeological feasibility (I mean, really, are any of the movies honest in this respect?), but instead the whole idea put forward that aliens landed and taught the native Peruvians agriculture and irrigation techniques. While this theory was popular during the mid-20th century, it was invented only because Europeans simply could not believe that Native Americans were mentally capable of independently developing agriculture or "civilization"; aliens were said to be the only explanation. It's taken real anthropologists YEARS to begin to dispel this insulting notion and undo the damage, and Indy has managed to break that down in a single sentence. Needless to say, the slight could have, and should have, been easily covered up. A benign alien temple in the middle of the jungle is not nearly as insulting as aliens being the only reason Native Americans could build temples in the first place.

But otherwise, The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a glorious romp through the nostalgic Indy in all of us, and is delightfully the first time most worshipers of my generation can remember seeing him on the big screen. The alien line is done no less believably than a 1000-year-old Crusader, or an Ark full of skin-melting divine will, or heart-eating cults, and the tempo remains fast-paced, leaving no time to think about how unrealistic it all is. Ford looks fit and capable, Blanchett is diabolical and slightly unhinged, Allen is refreshing, and Shia LeBeouf, as Indy's rebellious young sidekick, is endearing (though perhaps not yet experienced enough to base a new set of movies on: producers take note and don't ruin it!). But remember: don't expect brilliant philosophical exercises. Have fun!