It seems that Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade wasn’t Indiana Jones’ last crusade after all. Just shy of two decades after director Steven Spielberg and star Harrison Ford seemingly closed the book on their iconic archaeologist adventurer, producer George Lucas convinced them to pull the old fedora and bullwhip out of storage one more time. Thus, the Indiana Jones Trilogy gained a fourth part that was nowhere near as well received as the first three had been. Although still very successful at the box office, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull earned tremendous fan derision and disdain, and today is frequently cited as an object lesson in why some popular film franchises really need to learn when to stop cranking out sequels.

For all that, to be honest about it, the movie really isn’t any worse than Temple of Doom. As I said when I reviewed that installment, the Indy franchise has been rocky for a very long time. An argument can be made that it only actually has two good entries: Raiders and Last Crusade. While that doesn’t necessarily excuse Crystal Skull for some of its more egregious failings, I tried in this rewatch to keep the movie in context of the larger picture, looking at the franchise as a whole. To that end, it has some qualities that are at least mildly enjoyable. Unfortunately, appreciating them will require overlooking a lot of dumb nonsense. The jury’s still out on whether that’s worth the effort.

Title:	Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Year of Release:	2008
Director:	Steven Spielberg
Watched On:	4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
Also Available On:	Blu-ray Disney+ Paramount+ Various VOD rental and purchase platforms

The worst scene in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull happens just 20 minutes into the two-hour running time. I’m referring, of course, to the infamous “nuke the fridge” sequence in which Indiana Jones survives a nuclear bomb explosion by hiding in a refrigerator, that gets hurtled miles through the air before crashing to the ground – upon which Indy rolls out unharmed, and seemingly unconcerned about radiation. It’s a gallingly stupid scene that breaks any suspension-of-disbelief so early that, in the eyes of many viewers, the movie can never recover from it.

And yet, Indy jumping out of an airplane in a rubber raft was nearly as ridiculous, and many of those same fans have chosen to forgive that. Both scenes are awful. The difference between them is a matter of degrees.

Set during the height of the Red Scare in 1957, two decades since Indy found the Holy Grail, Crystal Skull replaces Nazis as the main villains with Russians. As lead antagonist Irina Spalko, Cate Blanchett delivers a performance that seems to be based on (and is barely any more subtle than) Natasha Fatale from the era’s popular Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon. Meanwhile, joining the good guys on this adventure is Shia LaBeouf as Mutt Williams, a 1950s greaser kid who dresses like Marlon Brando in The Wild One and rides a Harley-Davidson everywhere, because he thinks it makes him look cool.

In this outing, Indy is called upon to track down an archaeologist friend (John Hurt) who went missing in the jungles of Peru while searching for a famous crystal skull that will allegedly point the way to El Dorado, the legendary lost city of gold. This puts him in competition with the Commies, who believe the skull is of extraterrestrial origin and has powers that will aid their research into psychic warfare.

So, yeah, Indy goes on a quest for ancient aliens. Is that really any dumber or more far-fetched than ghosts, magic stones, or a medieval knight who’s lived in a cave for 800 years? Rationally, it may not be, but for some reason it sure feels like it is.

Whatever other issues it may have, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull mostly feels like a legitimate extension of the earlier Indiana Jones movies and, in its best moments, conjures some of their magic – or at least some recognizable echo of it. Ford is still delightful as the character, now older, wearier, and grumpier. Most importantly, the movie reunites him with Karen Allen as former love interest Marion Ravenwood, fiery as ever. Their bickering and relationship are greatly entertaining. Having Marion back is a huge asset to the film.

On the other hand, Shia LaBeouf is an annoyance. To be fair, that may have more to do with his off-screen persona and behavior than his actual performance, which is mostly adequate. Still, his presence brings a lot of distracting and unwanted baggage, and he’s on screen for most of the movie. LaBeouf is also central to the film’s second worst scene, in which Mutt swings through the jungle using vines like Tarzan.

Returning to direct, Steven Spielberg stages a bunch of elaborate action set-pieces that (in addition to those already mentioned) veer heavily toward the cartoonish silliness of Temple of Doom. In his mid-60s at the time, Harrison Ford is still game to play action hero, but the use of stunt doubles and green-screen is more conspicuous than in earlier entries. Contradicting Spielberg’s public promises to focus on practical stunts and effects, the entire movie is inundated with heavy-handed and obvious CGI. Even the sunset in the background is clearly digital. Most of the action scenes feel like watching someone play an on-rails video game with no concern for plausible real-world physics. The result of this is that the characters never seem to be in any real physical peril, no matter how over-the-top outrageous a situation they’re put into.

Despite its many inadequacies, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull still drew crowds back to the theater to see Indiana Jones on the big screen one more time. Ultimately, it was the #2 box office hit of the year, behind only The Dark Knight (a fun bit of jockeying for position between the two franchises, after Last Crusade beat out Tim Burton’s Batman in 1989). Nevertheless, fans came away dissatisfied. If this were to be Indy’s last adventure, it sure felt like the great hero had gone out with a whimper.

And that’s how things would remain for another decade and a half, until Harrison Ford would, improbably, once more put on the leather jacket and pick up the whip – to a reaction almost as mixed.

The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was initially released on Blu-ray in October of 2008. I imported a SteelBook edition from Canada, because that seemed like a thing I should do at the time. In fact, because the SteelBook was exclusive to the (now-defunct) Future Shop retail chain, which wouldn’t ship across the border to the United States for some infuriating reason, I had to go to the hassle of having a Canadian friend purchase and mail it to me.

The movie was reissued on Blu-ray in 2012 as part of a box set called Indiana Jones: The Complete Collection (ha!), and I wound up buying it again. Then a 4K Ultra HD edition followed in 2021, so now I own three copies of a movie that I’m at best indifferent to. Such are the burdens of being a collector.

The 4K release came as part of another box set called the Indiana Jones 4-Movie Collection, bundled of course with Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, and Last Crusade. Each film is packaged in its own new SteelBook case. Crystal Skull includes the movie on a UHD disc and one Blu-ray disc for supplements. No standard Blu-ray for the feature was provided.

Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was shot on 35mm film but, during its original production, was finished on a 2K Digital Intermediate. Many movies from that time, when released on 4K Ultra HD, are merely upconverted to the higher resolution and given a new HDR grade. My understanding is that Lucasfilm actually rescanned the underlying film elements for Crystal Skull and created a new 4K DI. However, as far as I can tell, the visual effects and digital composites were not redone. Those parts appear to have been upconverted and edited into the 4K film footage.

In scenes with no digital work, the 2.40:1 image on the 4K disc offers an appreciable improvement in detail over the Blu-ray. The texture of Indy’s tweed jacket in early scenes is better resolved, a very faint patina of grain is visible (the Blu-ray has virtually none), and the opening credits no longer suffer jaggies around the edges of the letters. Unfortunately, the movie has a lot of digital work, increasingly so as it barrels toward the CGI-fest climax, and most of that footage doesn’t gain much, if anything. Contrast is perhaps slightly better, but the HDR is pretty mild and colors sometimes look a bit unnatural and pushed.

At the time of release, publicity claimed that cinematographer Janusz Kaminski strove to mimic the style and appearance of the prior three movies photographed by Douglas Slocombe. That mostly seems to be a bunch of bunk. Shot on film or not, Crystal Skull has a very digital appearance that doesn’t mesh well with the earlier installments.

The new Dolby Atmos soundtrack is, to my ears, the best of the Indiana Jones Atmos remixes. That may not be saying a lot, but the track actually has a small amount of bass in things like gunfire and Indy’s punches. The engine of Mutt’s motorcycle makes a satisfying growl, and the big action set-pieces deliver a little rumble. While that puts it well ahead of the Atmos tracks on the first three movies, none of that bass is exactly earth-shaking (not even in the scenes where the Earth literally shakes), and dynamic range overall is rather middling for a big action blockbuster of this type. Dialogue is soft in the mix, and sound effects seem a little rolled-off.

Surround activity is aggressive, with some notable use of the overhead speakers. The big climax features sounds swirling all around the room. However, the Atmos is once again locked to 7.1.2 channels with no use of Front Wides or discrete front and rear heights.

The only extras on the UHD disc are three trailers, bizarrely labeled “Theatrical Trailers 2-4.” The accompanying supplement disc is recycled directly from the 2012 Complete Collection Blu-ray set, and contains a host of legacy featurettes and documentaries related to all four films, some quite old. Other features previously found on the 2008 Blu-ray for Crystal Skull (mostly promotional EPK fluff) remain exclusive to that release. Hilariously, I checked both discs in that original Blu-ray set and neither has the missing Trailer 1 either, only Trailers 2-3.

Related

• Indiana Jones franchise
  • Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) 4K Ultra HD
  • Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Film at 11 Podcast Review
  • Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) 4K Ultra HD
  • Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) Film at 11 Podcast Review
  • Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom NES Video Game (1988)
  • Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) 4K Ultra HD
  • Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) Film at 11 Podcast Review
  • Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade NES Video Game (1991)
  • Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)
• Steven Spielberg (director)
  • E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
  • Jaws (1975)
  • Jurassic Park (1993)
• Harrison Ford
  • 1923 (2022) series premiere
  • Blade Runner (1982) workprint cut
• Karen Allen
  • Cruising (1980)
  • The Sandlot (1993)

Note: All screenshots on this page were taken from the standard Blu-ray edition of the film and are used for illustration purposes only.