People condemning this film while mindlessly praising the older ones are forgetting that the early films were, for all their understated brilliance, often utterly absurd and whimsical too.

Angry ghosts live in the Ark of the Covenant and can make Nazi heads explode!

Or how about...

The Holy Grail can heal mortal wounds using Jesus Magic, and it's guarded by buzz-saws and a thousand-year-old Crusader who speaks modern English!

The latest film manages to almost exactly capture the same spirit and storytelling as the early ones. Again, it has some basis in historical reality - the geoglyphs, crystal skulls, and ancient art depicting technological marvels being controlled by non-humans. These all exist in the real world. Just as the pre-WWII films included the Nazis' search for supposedly-powerful Christian artefacts, the new Cold War film plays on the investigations into parapsychology, and the hysteria over flying saucers, that were alive and well during that era.

In each of the Indy films, we're expected to believe and accept that history and religion was influenced by genuine supernatural powers - the Ark, the Grail, the Stones and Rites of the anachronistic Thuggees in Temple of Doom. Crystal Skull is *no* different in that regard - except that we're shown and told much more about the 'supernatural power' in question, with less left up to our own interpretation.

It was inevitable that people would piss and moan about this film. There's no real way that it *could* have been made as successful as its predecessors; the old movies are obscured by nostaligia and sentimentalism; for many people, they're more like a myth or a concept that a simple series of motion pictures. By sticking to the "formula", the fans haven't been given too much that's new; but if they'd gone in a different direction, the very same people would be pissing and moaning about how "waaaah, they changed everything and murdered my childhood."

So, to summarise my opinion of the film, rather than just my opinion of the reaction to it:

Character moments? Check. Great to see Ms Ravenwood back again, and to be reminded that Dr Jones is indeed a respected academic. Good to hear that he had some official involvement in the Second World War; that adds some real colour to his character. As before, we have a typically one-dimensional villain, but one played very well by Cate Blanchett, a woman who can do no wrong.

History and fantasy? Check. Plenty of both, used pretty well. As described earlier.

Action and adventure? Smurf-tons. Some nice set-pieces, some great homages to the earlier movies without being a dumb tribute-fest.

Absolutely brilliant, yet not always serious, capturing of the socio-political climate of the '50s, too.

For once, I actually agree with something George Lucas has said: with a movie like this, people start expecting the Second Coming or something, and complain with undue bitterness when they aren't treated to an experience that exceeds the wildest dreams they're capable of dreaming. And nowhere is that more true than on the internet. Give your average internet minion a ten-pound gold nugget, and the first thing he'll do is write a profanity-laden diatribe about how it's too damn heavy.

If you go to see Crystal Skull, remember what you're watching, and why you're watching it. Remember the cackling Gestapo madmen of Raiders. Remember Short Round's antics, the ponderous treks through the Indian forest, and the pointlessly gruesome banquet at the palace in Temple of Doom. Remember Indy killing dozens of men - Nazis, Turks, Americans, Arabs - with no moral or legal compunctions whatsoever. Above all, remember that these films are flights of fantasy, unashamedly and unreservedly, that take ideas and images from the real world and play with them. If you think the older films are utter perfection, works of cinematic art unrivalled in their scope and beauty, the defining works of your life - then you're in the wrong 'mental place' to enjoy Crystal Skull. If you think the early movies were damn good fun, action-packed and over-the-top, yet riddled with humour and character as well - then you're got your head screwed on right, and you're perfectly poised to appreciate Crystal Skull for everything it has to offer.