Directed by: Steven Spielberg

Starring: Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen, Shia LaBeouf, Ray Winstone, John Hurt, Jim Broadbent

Classification: 12A

It's been nineteen years since Indiana Jones last rampaged across the screen, searching for the Holy Grail. Apparently his last crusade wasn't quite his last, as he's now back, again embroiled in a race against the forces of evil to find an artefact that would be better off left hidden. Though it's not that easy this time around - instead of the Nazis, Indy's facing the Communist threat posed by the Soviet Union, and he's not trying to find an artefact. He's trying to return it.

It's 1957, and the Russians, led by Dr Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett), are combing the globe for items they believe to have paranormal powers that could be used in a military capacity. By now, they're looking for a crystal skull from the Mayan civilisation behind the legendary El Dorado, or city of gold. They believe the skull has a particular effect on the brain, and they seek to win supremacy over the rest of the world using brainwashing instead of traditional firepower. Harold Oxley (John Hurt) has found said skull, and its power has driven him mad - whilst searching for him, Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) is kidnapped by the Russians and her son, Mutt (Shia LaBeouf) goes looking for Indy to help bring her back. That's not quite as illogical as it sounds - fans of the original trilogy will remember Marion from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Cue various chases across the Amazon jungle, narrow misses and your typically ridiculous 'only Indy could survive that' scenarios. Naturally you have your big pay off setpiece but it's nowhere near as cool as the three tests at the end of The Last Crusade - indeed the whole film feels more like The Temple of Doom.

It's all very straightforward but therein lies its biggest weakness - it feels more like you're watching someone play a video game of the movie. The original trilogy was a huge influence on films like The Mummy and video game franchises like Tomb Raider, and it's quite sad to see them having their own influence on the new Indy film - I kept wanting to press the square button to make Indy jump whenever he got into a sticky situation.

It's an enjoyable enough romp, if you can ignore Shia LaBeouf playing, well, Shia LaBeouf, but it just doesn't FEEL like an Indiana Jones film. Instead, it feels like an action adventure that just happens to have Indiana Jones in it - much as Die Hard 4 felt less like a Die Hard film, and more like an action film that happened to feature John McClane.

Don't expect any state-of-the-art effects, either - the CGI is incredibly ropey in places. I like to think they were just trying to capture the look of the original films, but it ended up looking a bit, well, amateur. Surely with the budget and the expertise of Lucasfilms, they could have made something that looked more realistic? Though my biggest problem with the movie is the sci-fi element. Yes, it was nice to see the US warehouse where they store all their most precious artefacts (including, it would appear, the Ark of the Covenant) but why bring the Roswell fiasco into the plot? Oh yes, that's right - Steven Spielberg's decided it's a good idea to pit Indy against ALIENS. I can't even begin to describe quite how wrong the end of the film feels. The paranormal, religious or supernatural powers of the artefacts he sought always made them so interesting, but somehow the explanation of the artefacts as being inter-dimensional feels flat, irritating and just plain cheap.

Indiana Jones is as much an anachronism in contemporary times as he is in the period in which this film is set. It's nice that they've advanced the era to match Harrison Ford's advanced years but Indy just looks wrong against a 1957 backdrop. He's totally out of place in a 50s diner, and when he finds himself in a mock town on a nuclear test site, you almost feel uncomfortable watching him surrounded by the trappings of 50s living. He looks perfectly at home in the jungle sets of the Amazon, but you just can't escape the nagging feeling that Indy should have hung up his hat a long time ago.

 2/5 Time Indy hung up his hat