Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Review

SPOILER ALERT:

Review for Indiana Jones 4

Okay, so technically the movie doesn’t come out for another day or so, but Stephen D. Greydanus – of DecentFilms.com – has already posted his review of the new Indiana Jones movie, The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Let me be clear: I haven’t read the review yet.  I don’t want to read it yet.  Not until I see the movie first.

Just in case you’re like me and you want the short and sweet version, here it is:

• Overall Recommendability – B
• Artistic/Entertainment Value – 3 Stars (out of 4)
• Moral/Spiritual Value – +0 (on a scale from -4 to +4)
• Age Appropriateness – Teens & Up
• Comments: Much stylized action violence, mayhem, and menace; a few gruesome images; minor profanity; references to out-of-wedlock parentage; vaguely New Age trappings

Let me also give you a taste of the review:

As with other recent 1980s nostalgia sequels like Live Free or Die Hard, Terminator 3, Rocky Balboa and especially Rambo, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull feels more like an homage than a credible continuation the franchise per se.  With a sequel, we want more of the same; here we know it can’t be the same. Sequels ask: “What happened next?” With these latter-day homages, the question is: “Where are they now?”

With that different question come different expectations, as Kingdom of the Crystal Skull seems to realize from its opening shot. Once again the Paramount logo mountain peak dissolves to a roughly similar shape, but one considerably smaller than any of the previous pinnacles in the earlier films. This shouldn’t necessarily be taken to suggest that Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is the least consequential of Dr. Jones’s adventures (Temple of Doom retains that dubious distinction); but perhaps it is the most aware that it will never rival the original.

As long as we’re on the subject of crystal skulls, let me point you to an interesting article at Spirit Daily, where Michael Brown talks about prophesy and the year 2012.

(For those of you not familiar with Spirit Daily, it’s like The Drudge Report of Catholic news.  It’s my homepage.)