Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Director: Steven Spielberg
Year Released: 2008
Rating: 0.5

Every once in a while, Spielberg does this: make a movie so awful, you wonder what in the hell went wrong. The last time, in my estimation, he slipped up this bad was 1997 with The Lost World - a truly dreadful movie - and before that Hook. I'm not sure what happens or how - the man is clearly one of our most gifted filmmakers, and to 'throw together' something this lousy could either come from disinterest, a lack of insight, a need for a blockbuster to make up for the loses from Munich, a desire to rush it out or some unknown factor (sooner or later, we all slip up). This one, Indiana Jones 4 (which was in production hell for a reason) manages to defy logic, look terrible (the CGI of Shia LaBeouf swinging with the monkeys made me wince), generate a bad performance from Cate Blanchett (channeling Elina Löwensohn) and introduce aliens to the Jones story, where at least the others had the desire to stay … somewhat grounded (considering the scenarios). This is perhaps unwittingly a parody of the other films, with too many ridiculous moments (Indy surviving a nuclear blast, Indy discovering he has a son, Indy defying basic physics, Indy channeling the cosmos) for one picture to handle. Spielberg said he had to revisit the old films to remember how to become the filmmaker to make this, so now is the time to re-purge his old memories and make something good.