Starring Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett
Directed by Steven Spielberg

Indi-4 has been a long time coming and while it’s no surprise that some of the stars have aged, it is surprising how well time has served them.

Fortunately the story is in on the joke – as Ford’s pensionable action hero quips early, “this aint gonna be as easy as it used to”. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull follows the Jones’ handbook closely with KGB agents, led by the delightfully sneering Cate Blanchett, after mysterious treasure locked in a US military warehouse.

Their mission plunges Jones into ancient tales of El Dorado and the jungles of Peru, where he collects a young Brando-esque side-kick and the side-kick’s mother – Raiders’ Marion Ravenwood.

Together they must stop the Soviets from releasing the skull’s secret power.

While there’s nothing particularly fresh or awe-inspiring about this fourth instalment – it can’t compete with Raiders’ rolling boulder for instance – Crystal Skull revels in a gleeful energy.

David Koep’s buoyant screenplay is peppered with in-jokes and passing nods; a glimpse of the Ark here, an unwelcome snake there. Add the sexual tension of Ravenwood’s return, evil dressed in Westwood, the spunk of Henry’s chip-off-the-old-block, that hat and that music, and you’ve got a blazing blockbuster that was worth the wait.

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