The WSFA Journal

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Reviewed by Lee Strong.

Lucasfilm/Paramount, 2008
Directed by Steven Spielberg

Yah gotta love a movie that’s been officially condemned by the Russian Communist Party! Apparently the Russian people love it since they’ve been packing the theaters to see the return of everyone’s favorite hit ‘n’ run archeologist!

Our story begins in 1957 Nevada where an Army convoy delivers Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) and his World War II sideman Max to an area where “special weapons” are tested and numinous artifacts stored. However, it is quickly revealed that it’s the Russian Army or Ministry of State Security that wants Indy to locate a mysterious box found at Roswell, NM 10 years earlier. Soviet psychic Colonel Spalko (Cate Blanchett) — in a really good Ilsa She-Wolf of the SS imitation — wants the box so she can spy on American military plans, teach the “truth” about history and generally think our thoughts for us. Once she has her hands on the box’s secrets, she plans to take them to the lost city of gold — Akakor in the Brazilian rainforest — where she will learn everything that she wants to know. Naturally, Indy sets off in pursuit puzzling out the riddles of the insane and dodging the dangers of two sets of the living dead, Amazon army ants, whip fights with Soviet gunmen, Sunday drivers, Washington bureaucrats, and academic committees! Along the way, he is joined by a new protégé, Mutt Williams (Shia Le Beouf), and an old flame, Marion Ravenswood Williams (Karen Allen). But can he survive nuclear blasts, a flying refrigerator, ultraterrestrial technology and the fury of two women scorned?

I liked Indy’s latest outing for the action, color, and fringe science or pseudo-science. The story is fairly obvious once Lucas and Spielberg present enough clues but they keep things moving along in the best Jones tradition. The characters are vividly conceived and acted, and the filmmakers manage to obscure the fairly obvious relationships until well into the story. The settings, ranging from the Nevada desert to Marshall College’s sedate 1950s campus and the timeless Brazilian rainforest, are certainly picturesque and dramatically posed. The camerawork is well done and the special effects splendid. I very much liked the way that the script accounts for the 19 year gap since the last Indy movie by simply accepting that 19 years have passed in the Indyverse. And I especially enjoyed the way that Lucas expanded the original Indiana Jones trope by adding 1950s science fiction motifs to the original 1930s exotic action adventure fiction. All in all, it’s a well told tale.

That said, the film is not without its weaknesses. Thematically and dramatically, this tale is very similar to the previous outings with Soviets substituted for Nazis. Changing uniforms and key words — such as substituting “paranormal” for “occult” for example — doesn’t disguise the basic similarity. We even have a fistfight with a hulking ubermensch and cliffs’ edge car and jeep chases about two thirds of the way thru the epic in close imitation of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Where’s the giant Arab swordsman when you need him? We could use him to execute the traitor that Indy insists on dragging across half of South America. One touch of anti-anti-Communist paranoia was particularly out of place given the reality of both Indy’s 1950s and the real 1950s. And, even if you haven’t seen the earlier chapters in Indy’s epic, a lot of the elements are easy enough to figure out, especially since the film repeatedly tips its own hat to its several predecessors. Still, as an action-adventure flick with a science fictional underpinning, Indy’s latest is a worthy addition to a popular universe.

I rate Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull as 4.0 stars on the 5 star scale. But not red stars! — LS

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Reviewed by Steve Smith

For the last nineteen years, since Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Indy addicts have had nothing but fanfic to keep themselves going. Fans of Marion Ravenwood have had an even longer dry spell; the female leads in the second and third movies just don’t measure up. Well, the wait is over — sort of. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a real movie, with Spielberg and Lucas and Harrison Ford and special effects and everything. It is also the biggest, most expensive fanfic in history. This is not so much a movie as an appreciation of what everybody wanted to see happen in an Indiana Jones movie (with the exception of sex. Yeah, that leaves out most “real” fanfic.) There are dozens of references to other movies, especially Lucas’s and Spielberg’s (the opening is right out of American Graffiti, for example).

As Just Another Movie it’s disappointing. Plot? Who needs one? Indy gets captured by bad guys. Fight. Escape. Chase. Capture. Repeat as needed, up to the Grand Finale. Wisecrack ad lib. Tie up with a pretty bow at the end. Fortunately, the movie is enough of a roller coaster ride that it simply doesn’t matter. There isn’t any one place that’s calm enough for your disbelief to get unsuspended. (Actually, my disblelief never got suspended in the first place. I just laughed like a loon all the way through. So did everybody else in the theater.)

The atmosphere was good; very 1957. It was the heyday of the flying saucer cults. Joe McCarthy was long gone, but his House Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAC) and J. Edgar Hoover still made things unpleasant for “persons of interest” with Communist cooties. The Soviets were, in fact, experimenting with psychic warfare. The US conducted several atmospheric nuclear tests in 1957 in Nevada, although the “fake village” test (“Annie”) was in 1953. The technical term for Mutt’s fashion statement was “Greaser”, referring to the hair. (Yes, Coca Cola can be used as a stone-age styling mousse.) The natural enemies of the Greasers were the Jocks (see the malt shop scene), and they were loosely allied with the Hot Rodders (see the first scene).

Leave your brain at home and enjoy the ride.

Highly recommended if you’re a fan of the first three movies.

Speed Racer, Reviewed by Lee "Slowpoke" Strong.

Warner Brothers and Village Roadshow, 2008
Written and directed by the Wachowski Brothers

“It’s Tron on speed!” — Team Tuna Fish
“Rollerball with cars! Ninja cars!” — Racer X

Actually, it’s not a bad movie of action heroes fighting corporate corruption set in a cartoon-like “world built for speed.”

Our story takes place in the not too distant future where over the top — very much over the top — automobile racing is a major world sport. Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) only cares about racing and winning despite several strikes against him including family ghosts and independent (i.e. vulnerable) status in a world of corporate giants. When Speed earns his way into the big leagues, one giant, benevolent seeming Royalton Industries, offers to take the family business, Racer Motors, under its wing. When Speed declines, the oily mask comes off and the fix is in! The action accelerates and the plot twists as Speed and his new found allies battle corporate racing thugs Snake Oiler and his smarmy boss E. J. Royalton in incredible combat thrill rides set in exotic locales.

Speed Racer is only marginally science fiction. The gee whiz science is mainly restricted to the cars — some of which can move at 800 kilometers per hour powered by electric batteries. In addition, many cars incorporate really over the top special features such as pistons that enable them to leap, cavort and kick box in mid air! It’s very much “over the top” action but it’s well done over the top action. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen cars jumping like rabbits and battling like birds!

I found the film generally good. The plot was rather clichéd and the climax was telegraphed hours in advance. However, again, it was well done with solid if obvious characters, a time honored struggle of honesty against power politics, and a vivid if cartoon-like world. Each of the major characters, Trixie (Christina Ricci), Mom and Pops Racer (Susan Sarandon and John Goodman), and Racer X (Matthew Fox), was well drawn and contributed to the fight for freedom and sports integrity. On the weaker side, Speed’s back story could have been trimmed a lot and the flash and dash often obscured the action rather than highlighting it. Still, a nice little story on a timeless theme.

I rate Speed Racer as 3.0 stars on the 5 star scale. Go, Speed Racer, go! — LS