Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull has copped its fair share of flak since its release. With that in mind, I was more than a little nervous when I took my seat in the darkened cinema. I'm happy to report, that my apprehension and nervousness was misplaced.
Contrary to what I'd read, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was not all that bad. At the risk of being declared a heretic, I'd rank it as number 3 in the list of Indiana Jones films, ahead of Temple of Doom, but behind The Last Crusade and my personal favourite Raiders of the Lost Ark.
The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull follows Indiana Jones in the year 1957. He's a little older, but basically still getting into the same sort of trouble since we last saw him in action. This time, rather than be pursued by the Nazi's, it is the Russian's that are on his tale, in pursuit of the mythical crystal skull that may or may not have been discovered by one of Indy's long lost buddies. The story begins in Area 51, and yes, it is more than hinted that aliens are going to be involved from the very beginning.
It's not long before Indy is accused of being a communist sympathiser, and he's without his teaching job. Enter Shia LaBeouf, as Mutt Williams, who tracks Indy down to help find his kidnapped mother. From here on in, things get a little complicated and all the elements of the story begin to draw together.
There's no doubt Kingdom of the Crystal Skull has it's flaws, but then, they are the same flaws shared by the preceding Indiana Jones installements. Like I said, I enjoyed Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, it was entertaining and fun, just how I remember the series to be. I'd give it 4 out of 5 stars for the nostalgia value.
The movie also got me interested in the whole Crystal Skull thing. It turns out that Crystal Skull's actually exist, although their origins are dubious, they are embraced by 'new agers' as possessing mystical psychic powers and created by an ancient civilisation.
"Many crystal skulls are claimed to be pre-Columbian, usually attributed to the Aztec or Maya civilizations. Mesoamerican art has numerous representations of skulls, and none of the skulls in museum collections come from documented excavations.[6] Research carried out on several crystal skulls at the British Museum in 1996 and again in 2004 has shown that the indented lines marking the teeth (for these skulls had no separate jawbone, unlike the Mitchell-Hedges skull) were carved using jeweller's equipment (rotary tools) developed in the 19th century, making a supposed pre-Columbian origin even more dubious. The type of (rather poor quality) crystal is Brazilian, and unknown within the Aztec or Maya territories. The study concluded that the skulls were crafted in the 19th century in Germany."
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_skull
The idea of there being thirteen Crystal Skulls, as in the film, has also been around since the 1970's.
"By the 1970s, the crystal skulls [had] entered New Age mythology as potent relics of ancient Atlantis, and they even acquired a canonical number: there were exactly thirteen skulls."
Source: Phillip Jenkins - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_skull
The thirteen skulls theory has been expanded upon, and presented in a documentary on the Sci-Fi channel:
Another novel and historically unfounded speculation ties in the legend of the crystal skulls with the completion of the current Maya calendar b'ak'tun-cycle on December 21, 2012, claiming the re-uniting of the thirteen mystical skulls will forestall a catastrophe allegedly predicted or implied by the ending of this calendar.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_skull
Perhaps the most famous Crystal Skull is the Mitchell-Hedges skull (sometimes referred to as "The Skull of Doom") alleged to have been discovered in 1924. Apparently no attempt has been made to identify the age of this skull, and while some initial testing was undertaken, more questions about it's authenticity seemed to have been raised rather than answered. Allegedly, subsequent requests to submit the skull to further scientific testing have been rejected.
Like much of the "new age" stuff that does the rounds, a lot of what is said about the Crystal Skulls is either historically unfounded or unable to be scientifically validated. That doesn't mean that the mythology and mystery surrounding them isn't interesting. I'm keen on catching the Sci-Fi channel doco now!
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