-----SPOILERS AHEAD------
The Good:
- Harrison Ford can act again! Thank God, I thought we'd lost him for a bit there.
- Surprisingly, Shia LaBeouf (did I spell that right) was pretty awesome as well.
- It very much felt like an Indy movie
- The whole truck/boat car chase sequence was damned awesome
- Nice to see Indy's class is still full of hot teenage girls
- The Crystal Skull that forms the centerpiece of the movie is actually kinda cool, it feels a lot like the Shankara Stones from TOD.
- John Hurt's Oxley is fantastic.
- The "interrogation" scene.
- The whole catacombs/graveyard sequence was very creepy
- Best use of Indy's fear of snakes since Raiders' Well of Souls (still doesn't hold a candle to that, though)
The 'Meh':
- The warehouse sequence, especially seeing the Ark again. Not really necessary, and it kinda felt contrived.
- Indy miraculously getting his job back PLUS a promotion at the end. Huh?
- The wedding.
- Marion's return - don't get me wrong, Karen Allen is great, but she doesn't DO anything but tell Indy that Mutt is his son (though her contribution to the aforementioned truck chase sequence was awesome)
- The climax. I didn't have as big a problem with it as my friends did, but it was a bit over-CG'ed, and no real Raiders- or Crusade-esque face melting-like coolness to it.
- Aliens (sorry, "inter-dimensional beings"). Not bad, per se, and it's really just the ending that has the problem.
- The Crystal Skulls (I know, it's in the "good" section too). We never really get a sense of WHY it's so important to get them together, why the unknown "power" is supposed to be so good. Even 'Raiders' had that - we knew WHY they wanted the Ark, even if we didn't know what its true power was.
- Spalko. Don't get me wrong, Cate Blanchett was awesome, but as she's written, the character ties with Donovan as the worst villain of the series.
The Bad:
- Mutt's Tarzan scene.
- The nuclear blast/refrigerator escape.
- Shia almost donning the hat at the end.
- Some CGI moments (especially the end)
- No side adventure at the opening. In fact, I don't even know how the hell Indy managed to get in the trunk of Spalko's car to begin with. Not really detrimental to the overall story, but still kind of disconcerting.
- I couldn't detect ANY real new music. It felt like a "Greatest Hits of Indiana Jones" score, mostly drawn from Raiders. No theme for the Ruskies? Really? What about Mutt? Or Oxley? Or the Skulls?
- What they did to Brody's statue.
-----END SPOILERS-----
Yeah, I'm nitpicking a lot. I enjoyed it a LOT more than my list might let on, those are just some initial thoughts. I might think of more on a repeat viewing or over time, but as it stands, I'd give the movie a B-.
Best to least:
1. "Raiders" (A+)
2. "Last Crusade" (B-)
3. "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (B-)
4. "Temple of Doom" (C)
"Crusade" and "Kingdom" are vying very closely for the #2 spot. I might have to consider them tied, myself. All in all, a very worthy - and not at all franchise-ruining - addition to the "Indiana Jones" saga.