by Amanda Demers

Created on: June 05, 2008

This is the much-anticipated Indiana Jones movie that people have waited for for nearly 20 years. While it's full of lots of action that we've come to associate with Indiana Jones, there's a sense of Indy and Marion from "Raiders" being dropped into another movie world altogether.

The movie begins in 1957, more than 20 years after "Last Crusade". Henry Jones Sr, Indy's father, and Marcus Brody, his absent-minded friend, are both dead. Rather than the Nazis of two of the last three films, the bad guys in this movie are Russians. Indy and his WWII buddy, Mac McHale, have been kidnapped by Russians who enter a base (presumably the infamous Area 51) disguised as US Army servicemen. Their search leads them to a warehouse on the base that holds the body of an alien being that was killed in the Roswell crash. They're accompanied by Irina Spalko, a psychic expert, played by Cate Blanchett (Lord of the Rings) He's then double-crossed by McHale. Indy escapes, but fin ds himself in a nuclear testing site that he only narrowly gets out from alive after a bomb detonates.

Back at the university, he finds himself put on leave due to an FBI investigation. After decideding to lay low for awhile, he meets up with Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeauf), from whom he learns that an old friend, Professor Oxley (John Hurt) has disappeared. After a close call with the KGB, Indy and Mutt travel to Peru, where Ox was last seen. Unfortunately, Ox has been taken by the Russians and is insane. In the meantime, Indy and Mutt discover a crystal skull. They end up in the hands of the Russians and are taken into the Amazon basin in search of the temple where the skull must be replaced, in a location that only Ox knows. Indy finds Ox, and learns that the Russians have also kidnapped Mutt's mom-none other than Marion Ravenwood . There is also a surprise about the identity of Mutt's father.

Indy, Mutt, Marion, and Ox manage to escape from the Russians after one heck of a fight and chase scene. They finally reach the temple where the skull is to be placed. Will they reach it before the Russians, and what will happen when the skull is replaced?

There is certainly no lack of action in this movie, and it's pretty fast-paced. You'll see plenty of fight, chase and escape scenes. The witty banter between the characters is still there, even though all but two are new. Harrison Ford has proven that he's still Indiana Jones, and I was impressed at the performance he pulled off. However, my biggest complaint was the presence of aliens in the storyline. I think that somehow a screenplay could have been written about crystal skulls that had another explanation. To me, aliens as part of a movie series about archeology are like party-crashers. Were it not for Indy & Marion and nods to the earlier three films, this could have been a movie unrelated to Indiana Jones. You'll have fun, but Indy purists might not be very happy with the storyline.

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