Indiana Jones and the Movie we didn't need

Well, it's finally out. After 19 years since the last installment and with fan's all around the world practically begging for it's release, it's now here, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and....well it's as disapointing as that title is unwieldy.Let's get the big one out of the way, Harrison Ford although a older & a bit slower is still Indy, no if's but's or maybe's. With whipcracks and wisecracks he is still the man to fill the fedora. I won't go into the plot but needless to say that it leads our intrepid hero on an adventure into the jungle (Peru) and along for the ride is Mutt, played by Shia LaBouef, who may or may not be Indy's son. Back in also is Karen Allen as Marion. The Nazi's are replaced by the commie's!And here in lies the problem. Lucas is back. Ford is back. Spielberg is back, the movie references "Raiders of the lost Ark" both in tone and characters whilst trying to update the movie from the '30's to the '50's. However despite the success of the update (when faced with death Indy is asked for his last words, his response "I like Ike") the film is not giving itself a chance as constantly referencing the finest movie in one of the finest Trilogies only shines an even bigger spotlight on this movie's inadaquacies.George Lucas annouced himself satisfied with the idea behind the story aroun 2 years ago stating that he had a "MacGuffin poeple would believe in" (MacGuffin being the item that propells the movie, think the Ark in the first, Sankara Stones in Temple of Doom and the Holy grail in the final movie) however the MacGuffin is frankly laughable.So, an aging Indy and poor central idea and some chanracters with literally nothing to do (Ray Winstones character-Mac-could lawfully be called Basil Exposition if Austin Powers had not thought of it first) it's sounds all bad but alas there if you can mine through some of the more tedious aspect and also the shocking ill-conceived ending there are some treasures to be found, some cracking dialogue, neat effects, an expanded off screen history for Henry Jones Jnr (He was in the OSS andfought in WW2!) and Cate Blanchett is wonderfully hammy as the villian of the piece.Go see it. Enjoy what you enjoy, disregard the parts you don't. It's a distant fourth out of four for Indy but then deep down no matter how much we wanted it to be as fun as Raiders/Temple/Crusade it was never going to happen.The 19 years have not done the movie any favours as expectation became insatiable but despite all this remember "It's not year's honey, it's the mileage"