It was certainly not what I feared most: that it’d be a Temple of Doom-caliber movie. This particular flick had all of the elements of the previous three: adventure, getting the girl, artifact-idols, the whip…
Seeing Indiana Jones stare down a mushroom cloud was just downright surreal. The Indy of the Atomic Age was certainly a good bit different and more seasoned than the one that tangoed around with the Nazis.
I thought the antagonist was as shallow and ruthless as any of the enemies that Indy has faced in the past. His line, “I like Ike” was absolutely classic.
Henry Jones III was pretty cool, too…I had seen Shia LaBeouf in Transformers, and I hadn’t realized he was also in I, Robot. Anyway, he was quite awesome. Were they to do more Indy movies, it’d make sense if he took the lead.
I thought that the alien aspect of the storyline brought an interesting twist to everything…the story also had the religious aspect to it, a facet not lacking in any Indy movie preceding this one. Only, the religious aspect turned out to have extraterrestrial origins. The Indy of the Atomic Age faced an immensity far beyond that mushroom cloud. It made for a very cool contrast to the ancient world he is so familiar with.
All-in-all, Indy still had it. He may be 65-ish, but he could certainly still handle a whip. If you have not seen it, you must. Now. Go.