'Not much logic around but a sight for sore eyes' - the critics' round-up of Indiana Jones No.4

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The new Indiana Jones film looks set to be a box-office smash if its premiere is anything to go by.

Die-hard Indy fans mobbed the cinema at the Cannes Film Festival yesterday to welcome the return of 65-year-old Harrison Ford in the starring role and original director Steven Spielberg and producer George Lucas.

Predictably, the critics were split, although The Sneak, of Sun fame, proclaimed Indiana Jones And The Crystal Skull "worth the wait."

Derek Malcolm, writing for The Evening Standard, gave the film three stars out of five and predicted it would be a great success, saying: "Don't worry, Paramount. You'll get the $400million you'll need at the box-office to recoup your investment in the latest Indiana Jones movie."

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Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull has received a resounding thumbs-up from some critics: 'The swashbuckling is truly great'

He said applause was muted at the end of the two hours of high jinks but described the special effects as hairy.

Ford is more convincing in his role than Cate Blanchett as the Russian villain, Irini Spalko - and manages to survive three waterfall plunges without losing his hat.

He concludes: "There's not much logic around but it's a sight for sore eyes".

And James Christopher for The Times gives the film a warm four stars, saying Spielberg's imagination keeps up the momentum, adding: "The swashbuckling is truly great."

It was the first time Ford has been seen - in his trademark fedora - in the role since the last film in the original trilogy in 1989.

But while the film's first audience greeted the Indiana team with a standing ovation, as fans wordlessly sang the theme tune outside, other critics were less enthusiastic - with one calling it "boring."

Peter Bradshaw for the Guardian, who only gives it two stars, says: "Despite some good-natured fun, and one blinding flash of the old genius, this new Jones film looks like it's going through the motions."

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'It definitely lives up to the hype and is absolutely worth the wait,' said one critic

David Gritten, for The Telegraph, brands the film "undeniably creaky" with "dull passages," concluding that it "feels born of commercial calculation than a story that needed to be told."

Kaleem Aftab, for The Independent, also gives the film two stars, saying that while Ford does justice to the role, the sequences become "boring."

Baz Bamigboye for The Daily Mail, adds the film does not have enough jokes, saying: "You'd have thought 19 years was enough time to come up with a top-of-the-line script."

But as Ford put it, it is the fans who will gauge the film's success.

He said: "I work for the people who pay to get in. They are my customers, and my focus is on providing the best experience I can for those people."

Some critics remained unimpressed by the fourth installment in the action series: 'You'd have thought 19 years was enough time to come up with a top-of-the-line script'

 

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