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It's been nearly twenty years since the last Indiana Jones film, and although Harrison Ford and the fans have aged, Indy certainly hasn't.

Kingdom of the Crystal Skull looks and feels like the previous Indiana Jones movies of the '80s do: The special effects are cheesy; instead of loathing Nazis, Jones now hates Russians; the one-liners are prominent; and the Indy theme is as overplayed as it ever was.

While I do consider all of the above to be good factors of the film, it is not without its fair share of problems. Shia LaBeouf, for one, has annoyed the hell out of me ever since I first saw him star in Transformers, and seems to be getting a lot of work recently because he's the "bext big thing". Here, he plays Mutt Williams, a John Travolta-type knock off from Grease, who has an obsession with combing his hair at every opportunity. Judging by the decision to include the stud in this pic, it won't at all surprise me if he goes on to star as in a new young Indiana Jones spin-off, pretentiously taking over the reigns of action from his on-screen father.

Cate Blanchett stars, also, as a stereotypical Soviet nemesis, and the (still) beautiful Karen Allen reprises her role as Marion Ravenwood, Indy's love interest -- both give respectable performances. Let's not forget that the admirable Ray Winstone is along for the ride, too, in this one. Sadly, his talents are vastly under used here to make way for the injection of youth from LaBeouf. It's as if screenwriter David Koepp couldn't decide whether they wanted him as a good guy or a bad guy. Either way, the character writing fails to take full advantage of Winstone's acting talents.

My main gripe, though, is with the plot. Venturing into Peru and the Amazon, Indy searches for the legendary Crystal Skull, which (supposably) offers untold power to the person that returns it to its rightful home. Spielberg, as we all should know, has a thing for extra terrestrial life forms (he probably saw an alien once), but the plot just feels too outlandish to me. Granted, the Indy films are about a fictional archaeologist's discoveries, but here it is as if the franchise has attempted a contemporary leap into X-Files territory, even though it has the classical elements of the movies that came before it in the franchise. There seems to be no respectable middle ground for the moviegoer to be able to settle into the adventure and thoroughly enjoy it. I won't spoil the ending for people that haven't already seen it, but the word "controversial" definitely springs to mind.

On a final note, The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull does have its fair share of decent action scenes -- the sword fight scene being my particular favourite -- but they're no where near as spectacular enough as they should have been to overcome the twenty-year wait that fans have endured, anticipating an Indy return. Yes, Jones is back, but the spark appears to have gone.

(C) Andy Carrington, 2008.