While Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull will not satisfy everyone in today's audience (often ravenous for cheap computer-generated effects), I can say one thing with absolute certainty: what you are getting here is classic, quintessential Indiana Jones fare. The film is wall-to-wall old school adventure; plenty of tense chases and over-the-top action, lots of sterotypical bad guys firing bullets that routinely miss the good guys, and as always, snakes. It had to be snakes.

And that's good news; that Crystal Skull's adventures stay close to the Jones home is the basis for the film's appeal. After nearly two decades, this is not the time for George Lucas and company to be breaking new ground, a la The Phantom Menace. In this new installment, the Nazis have been replaced by the Soviets, Indy has a new sidekick in the form of Mutt Williams (Shia LeBeouf), and the treasure of choice comes to us in the form of a mysterious skull everyone seems to want but can't seem to find. Even an old face from the past, Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), re-joins the cast for this latest adventure. Lucas and director Steven Spielberg have gone back to the well, pulled out all the stops, and the end result is a brand new adventure that basically delivers everything we love about Indiana Jones to begin with.

That's not to say there's nothing new to enjoy. This is 1957, after all, a full 21 years after Raiders of the Lost Ark, and the world is changing. The Cold War is in full swing, the Red Scare has taken center stage, Indy isn't as young as he used to be, and even Marion has a surprise or two in store for our hero. We get several brief glimpses as the film goes on of how Indy has spent the years since we last looked in on him (his military service being the most prominent), and of course, his endeavors have only been of the noblest kind. Once again, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

That's also not to say the film is without its problems, and they're difficult to talk about without including spoilers, so allow me to be extremely cryptic: there are some parts of the film that stray from the classic Indiana Jones formula, and these are the elements of the underlying plot that might have been reconsidered. Believe it or not, there are some things that are too over the top even for an Indiana Jones film, and a time or two, The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull steps right up to the line; some might even say it crosses it. There are moments when it feels like they're making the rules up as they go along; some details are not earned but instead fed to us. These are the things that will leave some people unsatisfied. Most of it goes down easy, though, and while it's hardly perfect, it really is great to have the good doctor back.

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