KEY POINTS:
The first new chapter in the Indiana Jones saga for 20 years starts with a bang before the director Steven Spielberg's penchant for schmaltz and the supernatural leaves a permanent scar on the franchise.
Set in 1957, the adventure begins with an in-joke reference to George Lucas's teen classic American Graffiti.
As in that film, a group of teenagers drives on the wrong side of the road alongside a motorcade of vehicles - but here the cars contain Russian agents looking to steal a mysterious relic from an airfield in the Nevada desert.
Spielberg shows his movie geek side by packing the action with references to 1950s cinema from The Wild One to The Day The Earth Stood Still.
The chief villain is Irina Spalko, a stereotypical femme fatale, played by Cate Blanchett, who revels in the role of out-and-out baddie.
Everything from her severe haircut to Stalinesque walk is firmly tongue in cheek.
In the established tradition, the caper starts with Jones in peril and barely escaping capture, while the villains also live to fight another day.
And what an escape it is.
In the nick of time, Jones realises he has walked into the middle of a nuclear test and manages to avoid being fried by preposterously jumping into a fridge.
The nuclear blast looks amazing but it signals that this fourth adventure does not inhabit the same world as the previous Indiana episodes.
Indeed, it is so spectacular that nothing which comes after it in terms of special effects or pure adrenalin rush comes remotely close.
The big question was always going to be whether Harrison Ford, now 65, could still do justice to the role.
The answer is a qualified yes.
Jokes about his age dominate his attempts to stop the Russians, while his sidekick Mac (Ray Winstone) berates his failure to intervene successfully.
Jones responds with a trademark quip: "We were younger and had guns."
Younger blood comes in the form of Shia LaBeouf, who plays Mutt Williams, son of Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), the returning leading lady from Raiders Of The Lost Ark.
Mutt hardly needs to convince Jones to join him on a mission to discover the Crystal Skull and return it to the lost city of Alkator, an El Dorado in the middle of the Amazon.
Having so painstakingly set up the 1957 backdrop, the South America sequence is back in the tradition of pre-war Indy.
However, as Jones runs through the jungle with Mutt, Mac and Marion pursued by Soviets, the sequences soon become repetitive and boring.
There are none of the character clashes that spiced up previous films.
The feisty, drunken Marion of Raiders has been replaced by a woman desperately swooning after the archaeologist, while Ford seems to be going through the motions as the film-makers make a concerted effort to showcase LaBeouf, who is clearly, and horribly, being positioned as the future of Indy.
There is no surprise when Marion tells Jones that Mutt is his son and heir.
The closer the fedora gets to Alkator, the worse everything becomes.
- INDEPENDENT
