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Dom Robinson reviews
Odeon, Trafford Centre 
- Cert:
- Running time: 124 minutes
- Year: 2008
- Released: 22nd May 2008
- Widescreen Ratio: 2.35:1
- Rating: 6/10
Director:
- Steven Spielberg
(1941, A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, Always, Amistad, Catch Me If You Can, Close Encounter of the Third Kind, The Color Purple, Duel, Empire of the Sun, E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial, Hook, The Indiana Jones Quartology, Jaws, Jurassic Park 1 & 2, Minority Report, Munich, Poltergeist (uncredited), Saving Private Ryan, Schindler’s List, The Terminal, Tintin, War of the Worlds)
Producer:
- Frank Marshall
Screenplay:
- David Koepp (based on a story by George Lucas and Jeff Nathanson)
Original Score :
- John Williams
Cast :
- Indiana Jones: Harrison Ford
Irina Spalko: Cate Blanchett
Marion Ravenwood: Karen Allen
Mutt Williams: Shia LeBeouf
Mac: Ray Winstone
Professor ‘Ox’ Oxley: John Hurt
Dean Charles Stanforth: Jim Broadbent
Dovchenko: Igor Jijikine
General Ross: Alan Dale
Taylor: Joel Stoffer
Smith: Neil Flynn
It’s been 19 years since the last installment and there’s been on/off talk of a fourth Indiana Jones movie several times over.
That said, I always thought that any further sequel would be a big-time romp that I couldn’t pass up, yet the end result became less than that.
Starting off in Nevada, in 1957 – set some 21 years after Raiders of the Lost Ark, which itself was a year ahead of the next movie, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom – Nazism is dead and buried and the new bad guys in town are the Russians as we’re at the start of the Cold War period.
As we begin, both Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford, right) and his companion of most of those past 20-odd years, Mac (Ray Winstone), have been captured by the Russians and, led by the laugh-free Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett – who I’m not a particular fan off in most things, and from the clips I saw I didn’t realise it was her so that proved a disappointment in the first place), they’re forced into a warehouse that’s long since seen daylight but happens to contain all the artefacts and heirlooms of centuries gone by and, as long-term fans will recognise from the overhead shot, this is the place where the Ark resides which, it turns out, is just one of the many nods to the original trilogy to which we’re treated.
After being forced to help locate a particular treasure, as well learning that Mac is now working for the Russians and so he’s been led into a trap, the king of laid-back doesn’t take this lightly and happily leaps from crate to crate and up into the gantry above without an apparent care, easily dodging bullets and making his escape. That set the tone for me to expect a wonderful experience, as well as the scene that followed which I won’t describe here as you’ll have to see it for yourself, prior to him being interrogated by the FBI, one of whom, Smith (Neil Flynn), is instantly recognisable as the Janitor from Scrubs.
The basic plot from here on in, such that it is will see Indy on the search for a crystal skull, an element that is steeped in mythology, which needs to be returned to… yes, you guessed it, a kingdom of sorts which is one of these ‘lost city of gold’ type affairs, because that’s the right thing to do as opposed to sticking it in a museum (for a change) or keeping it for one’s personal gain, which is what the baddies want to do.
Along the way, there are some great set pieces including a great chase sequence in the jungle – albeit one which goes on rather too long, a fight with some ninja baddies, some killer ants that you really don’t want to encounter personally, and a motorbike chase with Mutt Williams (Shia LeBeouf), a student drop-out who Indy teams up with and comes along for the ride. A couple of slow segmentS in the film, as we get some exposition on how the skull came to be so damn important in the first place, really do seem to go on far too long and needed some trimming.
Another addition that’s no longer a surprise since it was made public knowledge over a year ago is that Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen, right) is back in the cast, as she’s also been captured by the Russians and she makes an appearance when Indy and Mutt hit a dead end in their journey, but the reunion between the lovers from Raiders… ends up being one hell of a damp squib compared to what I expected and this also leads to a conversation in a truck, the details of which I’d best not divulge for fear of spoiling the plot, which sees Harrison Ford delivering another of his one-liners but in this movie these really do miss the mark far more often that they hit it which is a great shame.
Another problem with the film, and a serious one at that, is that when it comes to the acting and appearances, everyone onscreen is fine. Yes, just fine. Harrison Ford is better than most but it just doesn’t feel like he’s given a great deal to make his character excel. No-one else is exceptional or outstanding, either. Ray Winstone grunts along and ends up tagging along with Indy even after revealing his true colours (as if), Shia LeBeouf either combs his hair or looks worried – but even both of those is preferable to a ridiculous rope-swinging scene and Alan Dale pops up as yet another idenitikit American bigwig with the same dodgy accent. I was watching the final episode of Midnight Man earlier in the day before seeing this film and I failed to tell the difference between the characters!
Still questionable, however, is a moment involving a poison dart which is physically impossible given how they’re constructed, but that’s probably nit-picking a bit too far.
I saw Jim Broadbent on GMTV talking about how, as the Dean, Charles Stanforth, he’s playing the ‘Denholm Elliott’ character which, in a way, is true compared to the first film because he just faffs around the school where Indy teaches rather than coming along for the ride as Elliott did in No.3, and the way he enters the adventurer’s classroom early in the proceedings is identically-filmed to Elliott’s equivalent in his first film. Other references include a poignant mention to the characters previously played by both Elliott and also Sean Connery in the last outing.
It was great to see John Hurt make an appearance, but in his guise as Professor ‘Ox’ Oxley, he’s just an out-to-lunch loner who’s previously come across the titular skull and so just dithers about with little to do apart from go along for the ride. He’s like that because looking into the skull’s eyes for any length of time makes you go a bit odd.
Probably the biggest disappointment has to be Karen Allen’s reappearance as Marion. As I mentioned earlier, her entrance left a lot to be desired and things don’t get any better from there. Rather than build up a tempestuous relationship with her hero as she did in Raiders and as we also saw from Kate Capshaw in …Temple of Doom and from Alison Doody in …Last Crusade, she just bickers with him constantly until the obvious happens at the end once they’ve patched up their differences without actually patching up anything… Spielberg just seemed to want to bring a conclusion without thinking and so the last scene makes it look like he was saying, “Oh, I don’t know… let’s just say *this* happens!”
The ending to the adventure, prior to the last scene, is also bloody ridiculous, but then for those that have seen it, you’ll remember we’ve also seen totally mad climaxes in the past and gone along with it.
Aside from the film’s content, behind us and to the right was a reminder of the reason why I haven’t been to the cinema for 6 years, since Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and won’t rush again.
There were six blokes who must’ve been high on something because you can’t have so many annoying people all knowing each other by chance, surely? Basically, every time something happened in an action scene, whereas most normal people might laugh, or just sit and watch it because so much is happening, each of them went “WOAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
As soon as I heard them do this at the start of one repetitive action scene in the second half of the film, for something that we’re told happens three times, I just put my fingers in my ears because it was about to piss me off royally what came next. If one of those six is reading this, who was sat in row K, screen 20, at the 5pm showing on saturday 24th May, then you really are a complete bunch of wankers.
And this lot weren’t five years old (they were full grown adults), nor were they Wayne and Garth.
The sound wasn’t great, either. Apart from a couple of loud scenes where the sound echoed round the room, and an early bit which saw the sound travel from front to back which proved that the DD5.1 or whatever they’ve got set up in the Odeon at the Trafford Centre was switched on, for most other scenes it all just seemed to be coming out of the front speakers with nothing discernable coming out of the side or rears.
The positioning of my rear speakers at home are such that they’re to my left and right which is (a) as far back as I can put them, and (b) gives me the best chance of hearing even slight sounds coming out of them, while the front sound comes out of two speakers and I rarely use the centre one because it just sounds like the dialogue’s coming out of the TV and that no amp speakers are on, when either it’s a scene with not much sound aside from dialogue or for the average TV programme, so it just seems pointless (and I’m sat in the centre anyway so it’s not like everyone sounds like they’re coming from one side of the room).
Either I’m too used to lots of sound in a relatively small room, or cinema speakers just aren’t up to the job with filling the room with sound all the time when you’re sat right in the middle.
Next question: Will we get a fifth Indiana Jones episode 19 years from now, in 2027?
Lots of people have said the closing moments make it look inevitable that a sequel should follow on from it, but I’m not sure if they were watching the same film as me. It looked like things could’ve ended quite happily there.
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2008.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.