Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Someone needs to tell George Lucas to stop. Seriously. He needs to put away his word processor, pen and paper, dictaphone, or whatever he uses to put together these ridiculous stories.

Oh yes, I've just gotten back from seeing Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull movie, and I am not happy.

A few caveats before we really get into it. I went into the theater with somewhat low expectations. I had heard rumblings of poor reviews and I knew that nothing Spielberg and Lucas could put together would top Raiders of the Lost Ark. Or even Last Crusade. But I hoped it would be better than this.

There were some bright spots. There were plenty of witty moments where I genuinely laughed out loud. Spielberg crafted some great chase scenes, worthy successors of what's come before. But for every good point, there was plenty to weigh down the rest.

For starters, we have the fact that the supernatural was too blatant once again. In Raiders and Last Crusade, they kept the supernatural elements "behind the scenes," so to speak, only trotting them out at the end of each movie. In Temple of Doom, though, the supernatural was everywhere and really dragged on the movie. Same thing here. The fantastical was front and center almost from the beginning and it really didn't help the story.

Second, there were far too many moments where my suspended disbelief really wanted to be ... well, unsuspended. They strained credulity. I won't go into specifics since I do not like giving out spoilers. I will say this: I don't think George Lucas has ever observed anything in the animal kingdom. Ever.

Sad to say, I wish I hadn't been so eager to go and see this one. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't good either. Indy deserved a better fate. It would have been better if Lucas had just let him ride of with Henry Senior into the desert and left it at that.

At the very least, George needs to stop. It's just that simple. After the Star Wars prequels and now this debacle, the writing is on the wall.