Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

It was almost 20 years ago since the first Indiana Jones movie thrilled me as a teenager. His travels inspired me and his search for world treasures sent me into many childhood fantasies - and that interest permutated into watching movies of similar genres. So, when I learnt that a fourth instalment was on the way, I had marked my calendar way ahead of its release date.

Maybe it was just me: but I thought Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was the worst of the other trilogies. There were some laughs here and there - but they were cheap jokes. The travels were too late into the movie, it was not focussed and long-winded, many scenes were absurd (absurdities are expected, but tarzan-like rope swinging, falling into 3 huge waterfalls ala Niagara Falls unscathed, an atomic bomb explosion with Jones hiding in a fridge, a huge spaceship appearing from the earth and flying off - come on, what were they thinking off?). In short, I was so not excited nor was I thrilled. I didn't find any suspense in the movie either.

This is sad because it is the work of the (almost) original team that brought the earlier trilogies. George Lucas, Kathleen Kennedy, Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford, Cake Blanchett (close friends know how much I adore her since Elizabeth) - but they all combined and made me thought I was watching the cheap vcds you can find in the market (literally) of the Mighty Morphine Power Rangers.

Can one then be blamed of awaiting anxiously for next week's opening of Sex and the City?

The only question I could muster when I walked out of the theatre was: what happened, Indie?