INDIANA JONES IV whips into action at Cannes

Peter here, coming to you live from... well, my bedroom in Leeds. Not quite as exotic as Cannes, where the first of today's press screenings of INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL took place just a few hours ago. Already the reviews are coming in thick and fast. John Harlow of The Times Online says...

"Whether Ford€™s charm will be enough to earn the film the $400m it is estimated to need to recoup Paramount Pictures€™ investment remains to be seen. However, a preview attended by The Sunday Times last week suggested that the internet gossips who have doubted the film€™s drawing power may be proved wrong."

Variety equally have praise for the movie, saying...

"Nineteen years after their last adventure, director Steven Spielberg and star Harrison Ford have no trouble getting back into the groove with a story and style very much in keeping with what has made the series so perennially popular."

Empire Online had this to say in their mini-review..

"...it's safe to say that Indy tamed Cannes, an obstinate crowd at the best of times. You might read damning reviews in the meantime, both from film snobs and film nerds, but as Indy admonishes a geeky student after a thrilling chase through his campus, some people need to get out more..."

Kim Voynar's initial thoughts over at Cinematical were...

"Though the first act drags a bit, the latter two-thirds of the film pick up the pace, and the film is packed with all the familiar elements fans have come to expect from Indiana Jones. John Williams's classic score still thrills, and the film, for the most part, meets the expectations set when you hear those familiar first bars of the theme song."

Meanwhile, the BBC's Mark Savage thinks...

"...this is no Phantom Menace or Godfather III. The quality control has been maintained, despite the 19-year wait."

Joe Utichi of IGN UK disagrees (but remember, this is the same site which gave SPEED RACER 4 stars, while IRON MAN earned only 3!)...

After more than a year of hoping and praying that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull would do right by fans of the archaeological franchise, the film's first screening in Cannes confirms the worst. There's a brilliant Indy film buried somewhere within, but Star Wars syndrome has struck and Steven Spielberg and George Lucas just couldn't resist dipping into their box of computer-generated magic.

UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph are also less than enthusiastic...

"It's not that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, exhumed after 19 years to be the fourth in this series, is bad, exactly. But it's undeniably creaky. It had its world premiere in Cannes before an audience who cheered it in advance but ended up laughing at moments that were not intentionally funny."

That last review is not actually that much of a concern to me... I mean, THE LAST CRUSADE had moments that were funny - but left you wondering if you really should be laughing. Yet that movie, in my opinion, is easily the most entertaining of the original trilogy. Only time will tell if INDY can claw back all of the $400 million budget. It'll do staggering numbers this coming weekend - that is for sure... but whether or not it has legs is another story.