Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen, Shia LaBeouf

There are some symbols you don’t need to be an intrepid archaeologist to interpret.
When Indiana Jones rode into the sunset 19 years ago, no one would have argued that it was a fitting end to the series – but everyone, it seemed, wanted more. Well, you got it.

A man is hauled roughly out of the trunk of a car, picks his hat out of the dust and regards his captors. “Russians,” he mutters, dryly. It’s the year 1957. Cold War paranoia has an icy grip around America’s neck and rock’n’roll has a hand up its skirt. In the first 15 minutes, adventurer and academic Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) narrowly escapes a shoot-out with Agent Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett) and her comrades, not to mention a nuclear bomb, and things go downhill from there. Mutt (Shia LaBeouf), a leather-jacketed greaser with a comb and a switchblade, needs Indy’s help to rescue Mutt’s mother, as well as Indy’s old colleague. The key to all this is the Crystal Skull – but it turns out the Soviets are after that too…

Once again, Indy has to stop the supernatural historical artifact from ending up in the wrong hands. Once again, he’ll be facing all manner of obstacles along the way – this time we get motorcycle chases, sinking sand, jeep chases, swordfights, South American Red Ants, three waterfalls, and Cate Blanchett’s Russian accent. Indy will also unlock some ancient secrets – not the least of which concerns himself and a past flame…

Some of the action sequences here equal the finest in the franchise, particularly the opening scenes, but others aren’t so successful. Indy’s had his fair share of implausible escapes in the past, having fallen out of a plane in a rubber raft and plunged over a cliff on top of a Nazi army tank, but audiences will be pushed to their limits suspending their belief in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. There’s a thin line between the merely unbelievable and the ridiculous, and Shia LaBeouf soars over it when he’s swinging around on jungle vines with a bunch of CGI monkeys.

Spielberg had his work cut out for him trying to conceal the stylistic seam between The Last Crusade and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and there are slip-ups (like the above-mentioned jungle scene). But, for the most part, it’s a real tip of the fedora hat to the originals. Spielberg’s commitment to classic shooting techniques and real physical action (a couple of the cast members injured themselves during filming) has paid off, and does a lot to counterbalance Lucas’s story, which is pretty heavy on the supernatural themes.

For his part, Ford does a great job of recreating the character of Indy, even if he does look more at ease in his Marshall College persona and garb these days, but David Koepp hits and misses in his attempts to capture the essence, especially the no-nonsense humour, of the originals. Indy’s sarcastic throwaways sometimes seem like they actually have been laboured over for 19 years, and his dotage over Mutt towards the end just gets a bit silly.

As for the ending, the characters aren’t riding into the sunset, but the movie offers some resolution, particularly for one significant loose end left over from the original films. Don’t be too fast to call it closure, though – it still leaves us wide open for another installment.

It’s been almost three decades since Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford and George Lucas got the ball rolling, somewhat literally, with Raiders of the Lost Ark, and, personally, I think it’s still a hell of a lot of fun hanging out with the three of them. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was never going to live up to 19 years of expectation or become your new favourite Indy movie. It probably won’t be all that successful at enticing newcomers to the franchise either.

But this was always meant to be a gift for the fans. Just sit back for a hearty helping of nostalgia, and revel in that special brand of Indiana Jones fun all over again – even if it is a little rusty in places.