THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE PROBABLY CONTAINS SPOILERS

Indiana Jones first broke into the scene just after Luke Skywalker and Han Solo had started their battle against the dark side. His adventures verged on ridiculous at times but some of his more credible adventures included his trip to find the lost Ark of the Covenant whilst fighting against the Nazis in the 2nd World War.

Now a much older gentleman, Indie is still out there looking for treasure around his day job working as a professor. We rejoin him stuffed in the trunk of a car during the 1950s as a group of Russian operatives search for a mysterious artefact in a secret Army base in the Nevada Desert.

Thwarting their efforts and recovering what appears to be the corpse of an alien recovered from Roswell, New Mexico, but running from the Russians he finds himself in the middle of a town filled with dummies that is totally deserted. So after escaping the nuclear test by hiding inside a lead lined fridge-frezer he returns to school.

The feds (including a certain Janitor from Scrubs) don't believe him and he loses his job. But when a mysterious Fonz wannabe (the guy from Transformers) asks him to help him save his mother and their friend who'd gone off in search of the elusive Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

But when he encounters one of his long lost loves en-route he realises that this isn't going to be like just any other trip.

This is your classic Indiana Jones story, but some of the plot points seem a bit far fetched even for Indie. The fact that there are aliens for a start is a bit "out there", and seems an odd mix of genres. In many ways National Treasure and its sequel were a bit more credible - because at least they keep things grounded.

The other Indie films do certainly deal with fabled, occult and even religious themes, but the alien tangent seems like one too far. That said, it was a very watchable film and one that I'd certainly watch again - though probably not in the cinema.

My biggest issue with this film is about the ending. It is so cliched - the way that the characters just accept the presence of a giant silver space-ship taking off from the ruins of an ancient incan temple says it all. They barely flinch - even they've seen it all before.

Don't get me wrong. This film has some nice action scenes, some light hearted comedy and is a lot of fun but for anyone who likes to be kept guessing it's a bit obvious.

see also:
National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Fantastic Four, The Golden Compass, Welcome to the Jungle

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photo © Paramount Pictures.