It's Harrison Ford. It's Indiana Jones. It's Spielberg.

No matter how many critics can point out technical issues here and there, this movie still delivers in a major way. After a bit of a slow, campy, start to the film, it picks up and never lets go! You notice right off the bat that this movie really does look and feel like the original movies, both visually, and with the writing/acting.

Indy may be getting old, but after maybe the first 20-30 minutes or so, I didn't think of it once! It's almost like they knew you would have to get over the whole "old" thing, so they make it obvious, and then slowly fade it away. I think this is attributed with how spry Ford is in this movie. That guy keeps in shape! He can also still hold his own in a fist fight... the certainly looks like the Indy I remember!

Blanchett plays a great typical Indy-style communist foe, and the rest of the cast seemed to fit perfectly as well. The return of Marion from the first film is very welcome, and her bright eyes and smile help to lighten things up a bit. The biggest surprise to me was with Shia, who I normally am not a big fan of. I think he did an acceptable job, and after seeing a preview for what appears to be a serious thriller movie starring him, I'm interested to see how he matures through later roles. I think this movie was much more of a launching point for him than Transformers was, and I actually won't mind seeing him in later Indy films.

Indy 4 definitely has it's faults. The one that stood out most to me was the overall lack of fear or awe in the characters. I can understand this with Indy, but I was expecting more from his tagalongs. There are some pretty insane situations (OMG, THE ANTS!!!), and the rest of the crew react to them as if they happen every day. Obviously characters in these movies aren't suppose to cower in fear, but a little "Holy crap this ants are huge and are going to eat me" emotion on their face while they run away couldn't hurt.

I also can see how some people may be a bit put off by the over all plot of this movie relating some "not of this world beings". (And no, they're NOT aliens. Sometimes I wonder if critics even pay attention to the movies they're watching...) It definitely seems like a strange turn for an Indy movie, and definite 180 from the usual Biblical theme. But... well, it works! It's quite dazzling, and somehow believeable as long you have already bought into the Indian Jones franchise as being, well, unbelieveable!

All in all, I think that The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull well earns it's current 80%. That's a fair assesment. This movie isn't perfect, but I highly doubt you'll be thinking about the faults as you walk out of the theater. Perhaps you'll be thinking more along the lines of "So when is the next one coming out?"

A much darker, and more intense sequel to the first book, if not slightly less satisfying.

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe is certainly the Narnia book that I remember best of the series. Because of this, when saw this movie I was slightly dissappointed. Although the movie was very grand in scale, and did an incredible job making talking animals look...well, REAL, I felt it was dumbed down way too much as far as the action/realism goes. I mean, there was no blood in the entire movie, and some of the battles scenes where these little kids were tearing everyone up just seemed silly.

Well, here comes Prince Caspian, with all it's darker, dazzling brilliance! Walking into this movie, I expected more of the same. I was very surprised to be treated to a movie much darker and realistic than the second one, with battle scenes that actually felt very fresh! The final battle scene took my breath away, and even though it may draw some comparisons to Lord of the Rings, it did some things I've never before seen in a movie before. To me, this is absolutely essential in a movie like this. I won't give too much away, but lets just say this movie has the most incredibly jaw-dropping water effects of any movie to date. Seriously.

Ben Barnes does a good job with Prince Caspian. Be careful if you take a beloved lady to the show with you... you may hear a few goggly-eyed sighs during the film while he's on the screen! A very handsome actor, who brings more to the table than good looks. The kids bring back another great performance as well, and we can see them maturing and growing up a lot in this one. There is an unexpected romance between Susan and Caspian which I was worried would go to far, but it stayed light-hearted, and brought some humor to the story. I'm really looking forward to seeing the gang grown up even more in Voyage of the Dawn Treador when it's released!

All this said, Caspian definitely doesn't quite have the epic feel of the first movie (Here comes Aslan to save the day!), but it certainly is more entertaining in my opinion. I'm going to go against the flow of the critics, and give it an 82%. However, since we can't do that in reviews, I'll round it down to 80%. this movie is definitely worth paying to see in the theater, whether you're a fan of the Narnia series or not!