Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Spanish) (2008)

Los Angeles Times
"Entertaining on its own right....Spielberg clearly got enormous pleasure employing a lifetime's worth of skill and turning out wave after wave of smartly done stunts and effects set pieces." 05/19/2008

Entertainment Weekly
"At its best, it's a satisfying shuffle of the deck of famous Spielbergian moments....The first 20 minutes, especially, are a blast of old-timey pleasure..." 05/30/3008

Empire
4 stars out of 5 -- "Indy is older, but Spielberg hasn't diluted the integrity of the character....[An] adrenalising movie....Cast-wise, it's impeccable 08/01/2008 p.56

Premiere
"In the action-packed opening 45 minutes, Spielberg and Lucas have recaptured the magic of the INDIANA JONES franchise with its signature blend of mysticism, adventure, red-blooded action, and slapstick." 05/22/2008

Total Film
3 stars out of 5 -- "Back in the hat to stop Soviets mining the mind-control powers of the titular quartz cranium, Harrison Ford still rocks the bullwhip....Lean and keen, he hasn't been this engaging -- and engaged -- for years." 12/01/2008 p.134

ReelViews 6 of 10
The biggest challenges faced by Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull have less to do with entertaining an audience than competing with the ghosts of movies past and expanding the mythology of a character who has been out of the limelight for two decades. Perhaps it is too much to hope that this new movie, coming so long after its predecessors, might recapture the magic that infused Raiders of the Lost Ark and sporadically sputtered to the surface in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The latest effort is the most lifeless of the series, and feels more like an overplotted, confused reunion than a legitimate action/adventure outing. It would be a failure even without the impressive pedigree - Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull simply isn't a very good motion picture...George Lucas knows a thing of two about disappointing fans when resurrecting long-dormant franchises, but what he does here is a far worse crime than he perpetrated with Star Wars. In that saga, there was still a story to tell. The episodic nature of this trilogy meant no follow-up was needed. And, if this is the best the filmmakers could come up with, the wisest course would have been to leave movie-goers with their memories. - James Berardinelli
 
Chicago Sun-Times 9 of 10
"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull." Say it aloud. The very title causes the pulse to quicken, if you, like me, are a lover of pulp fiction. What I want is goofy action--lots of it...The Indiana Jones movies were directed by Steven Spielberg and written by George Lucas and a small army of screenwriters, but they exist in a universe of their own. Hell, they created it. All you can do is compare one to the other three. And even then, what will it get you? If you eat four pounds of sausage, how do you choose which pound tasted the best? Well, the first one, of course, and then there's a steady drop-off of interest. That's why no Indy adventure can match "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981). But if "Crystal Skull" (or "Temple of Doom" from 1984 or "Last Crusade" from, 1989) had come first in the series, who knows how much fresher it might have seemed? True, "Raiders of the Lost Ark" stands alone as an action masterpiece, but after that the series is compelled to be, in the words of Indiana himself, "same old same old." Yes, but that's what I want it to be...I can say that if you liked the other Indiana Jones movies, you will like this one, and that if you did not, there is no talking to you. And I can also say that a critic trying to place it into a hierarchy with the others would probably keep a straight face while recommending the second pound of sausage. - Roger Ebert