Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Until rewatching, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is the only Indy film I'd seen just once. The others, that have Retro Reviews HERE, HERE, and HERE, are fun to revisit and have [mostly] withstood the tests of time. 

As we prepare for the 5th Indy adventure, I've found myself wondering if Crystal Skull was truly as bad as I remember. A film where I left my high school midnight showing thinking, "WTF was that?". That was many years before I started Rath's Reviews and got better at sorting my likes/dislikes, so revisiting it was a worthwhile exercise to understand what went wrong - and also what things went right. 

The list of "rights" is a short one and largely comes down to moments where this feels like a true Spielberg Indiana Jones film. My humble opinion, that's pretty much only true in the lengthy opening sequence and while yes, the "nuke the fridge" moment is preposterous, the majority of this large spectacle has the makings of a classic Indiana Jones feel. During this revisit, it's the portion I enjoyed the most both for the mystery it establishes, the fun action beats, and the dry Indy humor we've come to know. 

Unfortunately, the rest of the film devolves into a very mediocre adventure, especially when compared to the highs of the originals, and many beats feel generic. The raiding of tombs or catacombs? The jungle escapade? The side character motives? All of it feels a bit phoned in, as if the "woah" factor of aliens would carry it through. For whatever reason, that part never translated with me and I don't outright hate it's centered around aliens, but I 100% find the quest for the Holy Grail more interesting (and fitting) for Indiana Jones. 

And then there's the special effects, which were bad back then, and are shockingly bad now. It's such a blight on the film, particularly in the latter half where it's greenscreen after greenscreen, that I can hardly believe it came from Spielberg, who often aims to use more practical effects. And these aren't face-melting-in-Raiders special effects, this is a flat-out overabundance, obvious green screen, and the effects themselves are weakly computer generated. 

So is it as bad as I remember? The special effects definitely are, while the overall adventure is forgettable, which is not an adjective usually associated with Indiana Jones. Aside from a fun opener, there's really no reason I'd ever watch this a third time. 

Retro Rath's Review Score | 6/10