Indiana Jones 5: 7 Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull Mistakes It Must Avoid
6. Too Many Cliches
The great thing about the original Indiana Jones trilogy was how smartly it subverted expectations and stereotypes. Our hero is allowed to fail - look how he wrongly assumes that Elsa is loyal to him in The Last Crusade, and in The Temple of Doom, he is fooled and almost loses his life during the opening scene in Shanghai. Its rare to see such a vulnerable protagonist, and all three films were littered with this kind of service.
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, however, did not fare as well. From the Eastern-European villain - something many modern action films feel the need to cram in - to the Im greedy so I must die sub-villain, played by Ray Winstone, this fourth instalment lacked the excitement and unpredictable nature of the films that preceded it. Even aliens are a bit of a cliche by now - for a franchise that typically revolves around ancient, mystical treasures, to feature a simple extraterrestrial threat just felt... boring.
It must be getting quite hard to come up with original plots in these huge blockbuster movies, but given the amount of cash that's put behind them, is it too much to ask for something that feels like it's had a bit more attention devoted to it? In an ideal scenario, this untitled five-quel will feel more like its own entity, rather than a response to the action movie trends that permeate the industry.