I was five in 1981, the year Indiana Jones first appeared on the screen. He's been a fixture ever since. I won't go into a lot of details about the film because I certainly don't want to ruin anything for you, and I won't wax on and on about Indiana Jones, but I will share a few impressions with you.

The last time Indy and Marion were reunited, Marion said, "Indiana Jones. I always knew some day you'd come walking back through my door. I never doubted that. Something made it inevitable."

And so it was for us. My thirteen-year-old self fully expected Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade to be the final Indy film adventure. She actually expected it to be the last official Indy adventure to be presented at all. But Lucas can't let anything die, and so we were given novels and a fabulous TV series and comics and games. But a movie? Even when the rumors of a fourth film installment was circulating all those years ago I was skeptical. Would Lucas, Spielberg, and Ford really do it.

Well, they did. And it's not bad. It's a perfectly enjoyable summer action flick. It's got an old time quality to it, and it feels good. It's fun. It's entertaining. The two hours go by incredibly fast. There are in jokes for the fans who know Indy well, e.g. references to the TV series. There are nods to Marcus Brody and Henry Jones, Senior. Gaps from Indy's past are filled in. Most of the acting is fabulous--what else would you expect from Cate Blanchett? But in the end, in my opinion, it's not the best one. And no, I'm not one of the ones who finds Raiders to be the best . I have a deep love for The Last Crusade. It's pure Jungian archetype and resonates with symbols and themes and structure that is meaningful and deep to members of Western society, even all of humanity. It would be impossible for Lucas to do this again with these characters.

Truthfully, this movie didn't have to be made. It was made because there were people who loved the characters and wanted to work with them again. It's certainly left things open for a continuation of the franchise, which means more money, which is always a good thing, in Hollywood's mind. And there's probably a viable option there. The local theater showed the film on four screens. Two were sold out, the other two were almost sold out. There were a few men who had a decade or more on me and a bunch of high school students, most of them wearing their senior '08 t-shirts. They were there for Shia. When the preview for his new movie came on the screen there was cheering and young men and women screaming his name. When he appeared in KotCS there was more excitement--applause and cheers. There were no such noises when The Hat made its first appearance, nor when we first see Indy on the big screen for the first time since 1989.

Yes, I enjoyed it. Yes, I'm glad I went. No, it wasn't earth shattering or revolutionary in terms of story or plot. But it was fun, like an old Saturday morning serial. And that, my friends, is what Indy was about in the first place.