Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)

In the much balleyhooed return of Indiana Jones to the silver screen, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, we find an older Dr. Jones (Harrison Ford) in the late 1950s, many years after his experiences in the previous three movies. Despite the passing of a good 20+ years, Jones still has a knack for getting into difficult situations from which he must then fight or desperately scramble his way out. Instead of Nazis or Thugees, this time it's Soviet agents under the direction of Doctor Spalko (Cate Blanchett). Both Jones and Spalko are dealing with the same thing, the possibly demented ramblings of one of Jones's colleagues and how they relate to a mystical crystal skull found in ancient Peruvian ruins.
This movie marks the return of Marion Williams, nee Ravenwood (Karen Allen) to Jones's life, but also the introduction of her son Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf) as a rebelious greaser. While I can applaud the return of Marion, I don't think the same chemistry is really there. She still tough as nails, but I don't think there's enough screen time focusing on the two of them (aside from fast-running action sequences) to re-develop the relationship in a way that would be satisfying.
Ultimately, I found the movie to be fairly disappointing. There were a LOT of action sequences that had to fit into the movie because, for some reason, these movies all have to top the last one rather than just be different from the last one. As a result, I felt the rest of the movie kind of rushed. I would even go so far as to compare Crystal Skull's investigative storyline elements to be reminiscent of Dan Brown's novels, too rushed from clue to clue and too patly solved by the main characters.
Plus, the action was along the lines of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade more than Raiders of the Lost Ark, and that means it tripped my "AW, c'mon" reaction more often than I would have liked. I remember that a lot of people criticized the non-stop nature of the action in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and I think they had a point. But it's not like the movies got significantly better on that issue from that point, just even more over the top and without the really different plot driving the story.
Letter Grade: C+