Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Release Date: May 20th, 2008
Number of discs: 1
Composed and Conducted by: John Williams
Album produced by: John Williams
Music Editor: Ramiro Belgardt
Music Recorded and Mixed by: Shawn Murphy

Warning: This review is full of spoilers. You should first see the film before reading it!

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was a great movie. It has great action sequences, great character moments, awesome special effects and solid solid (but very obviously flawed) screenplay. The film's really entertaining without being as masterful as the original Raiders, and that's exactly what John Williams' music for the movie conveys: it's great fun, but not as masterful as his score for Raiders. There are a lot of great new themes as well as some old classics, and although the presence of the Mexican music Spielberg used in the "Peruvian" scenes is somewhat embarassing, I nevertheless enjoyed this CD a lot.

I'll write this review in a pretty unorthodox manner; I'll write the list of all nineteen tracks (yeah, there are a lot of tracks, but there's a lot of music from the movie that has been avoided for this particular album), along with a comment for each of them.

Raiders March - The classic theme completly unaltered. It sounds as amazing as ever, even a little old, as if it were an old recording from the original Raiders of the Lost Ark. Simply put, amazing.

Call of the Crystal - A really chilling new theme. I love it. It's got the right mixture of mystery and horror to make the audience feel terrified and somewhat intrigued by the film's new McGuffin. It might not be as hummable as some of the series' old themes, but bad it ain't. It's great.

The Adventures of Mutt - A really lighthearted theme, really suitable for Shia LaBeouf's character. It's tons of fun, albeit not precisely memorable.

Irina's Theme - Anothe great theme. It's not Williams' most inspired theme, but it suits the character of Irina perfectly. It's soft and somewhat mysterious, and grows really intense in parts. Really beautiful.

The Snake Pit - Another lighthearted theme. Not precisely inspired, but a pretty decent piece of music nevertheless.

The Spell of the Skull - Another chilling theme for the Crystal Skull. It's more or less on the same vein as track #2 - a really mysterious, soft and scary piece of music. This is the kind of track that has made this particular score memorable. It gets really intense during its ending, which totally works for me.

The Journey to Akatorn - It's not bad until the Mexican music makes an appearence. Mr. Williams, I love your work. You're an excellent composer, I would even dare to call you a genius. But please, PLEASE, do try to do some research before composing music for a scene that takes place in a specific country. Believe me when I tell you: typical Peruvian music does NOT sound anything like this piece you've composed.

A Whirl Through the Academe - This is one really fun track. It conveys a sense of adventure and action, and for me at least, made the college chase scene all the more fun while watching in in theatres. It's exciting, fast, lighthearted and tons of fun.

"Return" - Another mystery track dedicated to the Crystal Skull, which has to be returned to the Temple in the Brasilian Jungle. (This is related to one of the movie's plot holes, but that's another story.) Suitably eerie and exciting piece.

The Jungle Chase - A pretty solid yet unremarkable track. Curiously enough, I found the music for the College Chase much more exciting, and I even noticed this while watching the film in theatres. This track drags a little bit and is a little bit too "marchy" for my taste. I'll take the tank chase theme any day. (Not bad, though.)

Orellana's Cradle - Another creepy track. Not precisely memorable, but gets the job done while watching the movie.

Grave Robbers - This is a pretty curious and "non-Williamish" track. It makes use of all sorts of weird sounds and piano key sounds, making it really creepy and, well, weird. It does work, especially during the scene in the movie. (Fun fact: there are no graves on top of hills in Nazca because there are no such hills in Nazca.)

Hidden Treasure and the Lost City of Gold - Another creepy track that gets intense in many parts and ends up in this fashion. It makes the discovery of the city sound really grand and epic, and really works for me. It's beautiful and bold and epic, and really well-composed.

Secret Doors and Scorpions - This is more of an obscure track. Not much happening here except for a more intense part here or there; this track is mainly for suspense purposes, and in that sense, it totally works.

Oxley's Dilemma - One of the most beautifully mysterious tracks in the whole CD. It builds up and builds up to its conclusion, and the piece as a whole is really chilling. It does make me shiver. Really cool piece of music for one of the movie's greatest discoveries.

Ants! - An action track. Not particularly memorable, but works within the context of the film. (I liked the "bugs theme" in Temple of Doom better, though.)

Temple Ruins and the Secret Revealed - Anothe great track. It's intense, creepy and "alien-sounding", as well as a bit actiony in parts. It works great within the movie, and also serves as great listening material.

The Departure - A pretty rousing theme, especially in the middle. For those who don't know, this is the music that plays while the flying saucer is revealed from inside the Temple and flies into another dimension.... or something. It's pretty epic sounding during the reveal, and then turns soft for a couple of seconds. A pretty cool theme for one of the film's final scenes.

Finale - The marriage of Indy and the credits, basically. It starts with Marion's theme, then turning into the Raiders March once again, and then playing a couple of themes during the movie's ending. A pretty effective "finale" for the movie - it's more personal than epic, unlike the previous track.

My general thoughts on the soundtrack? It's great because it manages to mix our good ol' themes from the previous movies with new, memorable tracks. The only downside is that it doesn't feature all the music from the film (I bet you Lucasfilm is gonna sell us the "Ultimate Complete Collector's Limited Edition" of the Soundtrack in a couple of years), and that the Journey of Akator track contains Mexican music trying to sound "Peruvian" and failing miserably. Apart from that, this new John Williams score is great - when has he failed us? -, although, like the film, not as great as the Raiders score.