Set during the Cold War, the Soviets—led by sword-wielding Irina Spalko—are in search of a crystal skull which has supernatural powers related to a mystical Lost City of Gold. Indy is coerced to head to Peru at the behest of a young man whose friend—and Indy's colleague—Professor Oxley has been captured for his knowledge of the skull's whereabouts.
I'll be the first to admit it is nothing even remotely close to as good as the Last Crusade, but I still enjoyed the adventure of it. I liked the addition of Shia Labeouf and was hoping that the series could potentially continue on with him. Unfortunately the actor dealt with many issues but seems to have them resolved now. Unfortunately the newest movie somewhat eliminates the hope of him coming back to take on the role going forward, although it's still not impossible for them to make this happen if they really wanted to.
Pros:
still a good Indy adventure
the crystal skull certainly wasn't as cool as the holy grail but it still had a cool mysticism to it
enjoyed some of the runaway action scenes.
enjoyed a little change up from Nazis being the bad guys to the Soviets. Both were horrific totalitarian regimes, just feel Soviets haven't been as exposed as well as the Nazis have in cinema.
Cons:
after returning the crystal skull I was hoping for something a little more spectacular
Cate Blanchett I just don't see as a villain, and the accent was not convincing to me.
sort of rushed into the story.
no great reason provided why Ravenwood and him didn't figure it out together before and seems incredibly unlikely she wouldn't tell them about their son.
the triple agent character just became incredibly annoying and wasn't really necessary to most of the story.
Reviewed by alerikanderson7 / 10
Despite being the weakest Indy movie, it's still good enough
To be honest, I kind of expected this to happen. People are going nuts about aliens and area 51 stuff. Like Jurassic World Dominion, it's about locusts and a dinosaur sanctuary in Europe, but they gave more 10 star ratings than the other sequels. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is better than what everyone is saying. It gives you good visuals and action to love and decent characters to have a rollercoaster ride to this movie. The only Issues I have with it is some of the alien stuff, Mac the traitor, and the storylines can't bring down the movie that much. Also, I like the beginning where it plays the song Hound Dog.
Reviewed by ashleyfitches6 / 10
Over hated I think.
I came into this watching the previous original trilogy, and was expecting it to be the weakest, as I've heard and although that is true, I think it gets too much hate for what it is. I actually enjoyed this movie, and although not on the same level as the original trilogy, it still was fun to watch, and with much less comedy aspect, it delved into old flames and potential new comers to this series. Although it was fun they was still times where the plot did annoy me, and it made Indiana look more stupid and silly than he is, which is not really what his character is about. In the end I would recommend this movie especially if you're watching the franchise from the beginning.