Moive Review: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull             4/5 stars

Starring: Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Shia LaBeouf and Karen Allen

Summary: A new addition to a classic adventure film series with archaeologist and professor Indiana Jones

Rated: PG-13 for death, violence, and frightening images

Available at: Dordt College Library for one week rental

When I first asked people about “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” I got back some fairly negative feedback on it and simply refrained from watching it for some time.

However when I watched the movie myself I came to realize something. The movie is marginally different from other films in the series, but it proved to be a decent film.

Like other films in the series, “The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” was directed by Steven Spielberg and written by George Lucas

The film starts a number of years after the conclusion of “Indiana Jones the Last Crusade.” Rather than facing off against allies of the Nazi regime as he did in the first and third films, Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) finds himself racing against Soviet agent Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett) to find the crystal skull of Akator.

Along the way he is aided by a rebellious youth and biker Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf) and his mother Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), Indy’s love interest in the first movie, as they try to find the secret of the skull before their communist foes.

The film itself stayed fairly true to the tone set by the previous films. Indy is still the archaeologist figuring things out as he goes, delving into ancient dungeons and the like, meeting a love interest on one level or another on the way, getting involved in multiple chase scenes and so on.

Like in the other films, Indiana has a talent for cheating death at the last moment. This film takes that to another level that seemingly defies realism. (If the reader wishes to know details on that, watch the movie. I’m not spoiling it.)

 The music was well placed. Music in action scenes played quickly to fit the pace of the action. Scenes where Indy was looking for clues or other slow-moving scenes often had softer, slower music in the background. A new twist to the music selection was the addition of music that was written in the 1950s and 1960s to fit the culture of the film’s 1957 setting.

My main criticism of the film was a divergence from the normal genre of the series. When the film was made it they tried making somewhat different. That in itself is fine as the films need to have some degree of difference between each other. The problem is that this action film strays into the realm of the Sci-fi genre. The genre of the film is somewhat out of character in comparison with the other three films. This is the likely reason that those I spoke to prior to viewing the film did not care for it.

As the fourth part of a classic film series, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” was a good film that demonstrated that it may be time to let the franchise go before it strays further from its original genre.

Aside from that, the film was well done, flowed well and for the most part stayed true to the action, mystery, fun and adventure one expects of Indiana Jones.

Column: Dordt College schedule

Bryan C. Visser

            Last semester, I occasionally found myself running out of the commons trying to get to class because I used most of the 10 minute break between classes getting lunch.

Ten minutes is usually not enough time to go to the commons, wait in line, and eat. Even the lines at the Defender Grille can take too long.

Either something needs to change, or students will need to cope.

My initial thought was that this issue could be easily solved by altering the schedule on Tuesdays and Thursdays to move the 20 minute break to a time that allowed students a little more time to eat.

When I asked Jim Bos the registrar I learned it wasn’t that simple.

“The break is where it is so that we could have labs in the morning. With the Core program now requiring all students to take a lab class there simply weren’t enough lab periods if we just went from two to five. That was to accommodate a three hour lab in the morning on Tuesdays and Thursdays,” Bos said.

Bos also explained that an additional 20 minute break had been considered, but would have conflicted with the time for coaches as the last class of the day would have ended that much later.

To change the position of the 20 minute break, the labs would need to let out earlier, which would be doable if labs did not need the full three hours they are scheduled for.

In the year he’s been here, Chris Schultz has taken five labs. He explained that only one of those labs has regularly run the full three hours.

If not all labs need the full three hours to do what they need to, the shorter labs could be put in the mornings while the ones that still require that time could be put in the older afternoon slot.