Indiana Jones 5: 7 Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull Mistakes It Must Avoid
2. The Recycled Love Interest
Karen Allens Marion Ravenwood was a superb foil for Indy in Raiders of the Lost Ark. She didn't so easily succumb to his rugged charm, and tried to play him like a flute when so many other women would have just caved to his looks.
But, like all the best movie characters, you use them too much and they'll lose their impact. Prior to Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, each Indy adventure has featured a different love interest - we had Marion, Willie and Elsa, respectively. This worked because it gave our hero different challenges to face each time - the different male villains provided the physical threat, and the three female vixens provided the psychological mind games.
But, by bringing back Marion - and even worse, reducing her to a pandering, lovey-dovey makeshift wife and mother - Kingdom of the Crystal Skull felt like it was just trying to do something that had already been done better before. Indiana Jones 5 needs to move forward and test our hero in new, exciting, dangerous ways, lest it devolve into a series of tried and true plot points.