Quickly: Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

I liked it. Perhaps not as much as I wanted to, but that much enjoyment would have proably required at least one change in pants during hte film, so perhaps it's fo rhte best. It certainly fits in with the other three and Roger Ebert put it the best as to their order of quality:

"All you can do is compare one to the other three. And even then, what will it get you? If you eat four pounds of sausage, how do you choose which pound tasted the best? Well, the first one, of course, and then there's a steady drop-off of interest. That's why no Indy adventure can match "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981). But if "Crystal Skull" (or "Temple of Doom" from 1984 or "Last Crusade" from, 1989) had come first in the series, who knows how much fresher it might have seemed? True, "Raiders of the Lost Ark" stands alone as an action masterpiece, but after that the series is compelled to be, in the words of Indiana himself, "same old same old." Yes, but that's what I want it to be."

So let's just say it was still some tasty sausage.

Quick breakdown of the problems I had with the flick (THAR BE SPOILERS BELOW MATEY):

-They're pushing Shia LeBouf to be the "next" Indiana a little too hard in the movie. Not wholly over the top (ie. Jar Jar), but just enough to grate a little.

-This is my damage: why do I find aliens less believeable than Hindu Stones, The Lost Arc & The Holy Grail?

-I don't think Indiana Jones shot anyone at all.

-In Last Crusade you had the perfect ending to the series: Indiana & Co. literally riding off into the sunset. To justify a next installment, I felt they had to improve upon that ending. They didn't.

And to leave on a high note, what I liked:

-Karen Allen & Harrison Ford's back and forth dialoge was really good. I'd pay to see them together in a screw-ball comedy of some type.

-Along with that, Harrison Ford actually looked like he was enjoying himself, something I haven't seen from him in a movie since, probably, the last Indiana Jones movie.

-All Cate Blanchett was missing was moustache to twirl. The best villain this series has had since Belloch and the Creepy German Dude in Raiders.

-Come on, no matter what, it's Fucking Indiana Jones. I mean, just thinking about the theme music makes me want to go see it again. Here, take a test, sing the lyrics to the theme (below, from here) and try and stop your body from involuntarily getting up and walking ot the theatre:

In-di-ana fuck-ing Jones

In-di-ana moth-er-fuck-ing Jones

In-di-ana fuck-ing Jones

Bite my ball-sack you Na-zis I’m In-di-ana fuck-ing Jones