"Indiana Jones and the Aches and Pains of Middle-age"

One thing that sort of bugs me about "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" is a certain bit of laziness as far as production values. The previous entries in the Indy cannon were full of cool, exotic location shoots. To my eyes, 'Crystal Skull' sure seems like everything was done within a twenty-mile radius of Hollywood. The well documented stuff that they shot at (I think) Harvard being the only apparent exception.

When we first see Indy and the Commies outside the Area 51 warehouse, it doesnt even look like a real exterior.

I'm all for green screen worlds like "Sin City" and "Speed Racer" but when it's done out of convenience, it tends to look a bit cheap. More like a big-budget cable movie.

The original Indy flicks featured a lot of full-on artifice - think of the scene in 'Raiders' where the jeep full of Nazis plunges off a very obvious matte-painting cliff. Or the mine chase miniatures in "Temple of Doom" featuring GI Joe dolls speeding down a Lionel trains set.

But there was a lot of charm in doing things old-school. And it was appropriate in the way that the effects were in Republic's "The Adventures of Captain Marvel."

The earlier 'Raiders' entries were shot all over the world. In deserts and canyons and grimy villages. With real sunlight and jungles that didnt look like the lagoon from "Gilligan's Island."

And unlike a lot of other folks, I thought most of the CGI work in 'Crystal Skull' looked pretty cool. Even to the untrained eye, it can be pretty obvious when something is CGI. CGI opens up so many otherwise unobtainable vistas that you just know innately that a giant UFO in the sky isn't a big model on wires.

But when every single shot has that fancy, golden light that nature provides a location only sporadically, you start to get a bit of eye fatigue. "Speed Racer" was two hours of eye-fatigue by comparison but it fit the mold, it had an internal consistency. Cold, hard worlds filled with machines and spaceships - like "Star Wars" - are more credibly created in a digital realm.

I didn't have gigantic expectations for "Crystal Skull," so I can't really say it was that much of a letdown. It sure zipped by pretty fast. Shia LeBeouf was nowhere near as annoying as I had hoped. The Marlon Brando drag was a bit embarrassing at first. I'm speaking of the first glimpse of him on a Harley, looking like a long-lost member of the Village People. At least he didnt wear the goofy hat after that. I liked the greaser/hot rod/switchblade stuff too. Maybe it was corny and obvious and owing more to previous depictions of the era than anything that really existed in that time frame but it was fun and goofy.