Spielberg is an educationist; and always teaches us something unique, in his Indiana movies. In Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, he tells us that one of the coolest places to take your family for a summer holiday is down a gigantic triple waterfall in a jeep that doubles up as a boat; that if you fall into quick or dry sand and can’t find a rope, you ought to get hold of a giant rattlesnake; and that if you wish to survive a devastating holocaust, you simply need to sit in a fridge.
Archaeology professor, Dr. Jones (Harrison Ford), is led to an old warehouse to identify a top-secret crate that he had examined a decade ago. Later, he finds himself in Peru, along with his old pal, his ex-girlfriend, her teenage son, and, of course, the bad guys, in search of magical skulls. It is 1957, the height of the cold war. The Soviets want the skulls because they are believed to possess the ultimate knowledge.
The plot, which borrows ideas from a myth related to the ancient Mayan civilization, is barren, and reveals the dearth of writers with depth in the land of extravagant film budgets. The good guys keep running into and out of the same bad guys’ sight, repeatedly, on a mystical terrain that could have offered so many unpleasant twists and turns had the writers run wild on their imagination.
Harrison demonstrates that age is no criteria for being a macho hero. Karen Allen doesn’t drink like a man anymore but is still happy-tough. And Shia LaBeouf, a teenager who stylishly combs his fringe-curls at the oddest moments and does a sword fight standing on two parallel-moving jeeps while shrubs rush between his legs, bursts with youthful energy and hilarity.
Set in the fun-loving fifties, the film gushes with fabulous moments, and has a pace that is as reckless as a Cadillac without any breaks.
In the heat of the action, Dr. Jones and his motor bike crash into the desks in the university library. An unperturbed young researcher takes his eyes off his book and raises an archaeological question. “If you want to be a good archaeologist”, the professor says to the nerds while dusting his pants, “you’ve got to get out of the library”. Creating such comical, sci-fi adventure for all ages, Spielberg brings out the child in you.
