by Tim Webb

Created on: May 25, 2008   Last Updated: November 01, 2010

It seems strange to think that it has been 19 years since the release of the last Indiana Jones film back in 1989. It is also stranger to recollect when the last film was at the cinema, the first Batman film and a James Bond film were also released at the same time in busy summer period. Well, here we are in the Summer of 2008 and guess what? Both Batman and Bond will be released this year as well. Guess what goes around comes around.

This film being released so long after the Last Crusade is a big gamble on the part of Lucas and Spielberg. In an attempt to resurrect a profitable franchise in the same way as Stallone did with Rocky Balboa is a bold move indeed. The big question that will want to be answered will be if the film is any good. Given George Lucas's previous attempts at revisiting a franchise then I have to say that the Crystal Skull is not only entertaining but also fast paced and enjoyable, however that is not to say that the film is perfect as in some places it isn't. This is mainly because for an Indiana Jones film we are out of the comfort zone, there are no Nazis as the time-line is now set in 1957 in the middle of the Cold War era, so in this film the Russians are the new Nazi's.

The film starts on a high note with Indy and his colleague Mac being kidnapped by the Russians; they arrive outside a Military Base in the Desert. The Base itself turns out to be the mysterious Area 51 facility, The Russians need to get inside Area 51 to obtain a box that Jones managed to obtain in a dig some 10 years earlier. The warehouse they enter inside the Base is the one seen at the end of Raiders of The Lost Ark. But the Arc is not necessarily what they are after. A crate is located and removed to be loaded on the truck outside, this sets up a chase scene actually inside the enormous building. Not only is this well executed but has some nice touches to it such as Indy over estimating his radius of his whip-swing and ending up in the wrong vehicle. This is what is seen in the trailer.

From here on the film introduces a new character called Mutt who is played by Transformers star Shia LeBeouf. Over the course of the film his character grows on you and by the end you feel that Mutt has had undergone an induction process and feels that he has found something that that could prove to be his destiny.

Again Harrison Ford plays the legendary Indiana Jones. At 66 years old he looks incredibly well for someone of his age, he never lets up throughout the film and seems

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