One of the movie related blogs I read ran a post poking fun at a new Indiana Jones collectible item. While I have no problem poking fun at industries that make collectible 12″ figurines in limited runs or the adults that buy them, I do have a problem with their criticism of this particular item.

(I’m going to assume everyone reading this has either seen Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull or does care about a spoiler for a non-plot related action point early in the movie. You are hereby warned.)

They, like so many before them make fun of the scene where Indiana Jones climbs into a lead-lined refrigerator to survive a nuclear blast at relatively close range. They essentially use to the term “nuked the fridge” interchangeably with “jumped the shark“. They incredulously reject the scene as silly, unbelievable, and out of place in an Indiana Jones movie.

(continued after the break)

Here’s the thing: I still find it funny that people get so bent out of shape about the fridge scene (or the monkey/vine scene) in Crystal Skull because it didn’t fit in the trilogy…or whatever we have to call it now that there are four movies.

Do none of these people remember Indy using a rubber dingy to survive a drop from an airplane into the mountains (and subsequent safe journey through a series of convenient caves and valleys) in Temple of Doom?. Or surviving a fight with a big Nazi brute near a taxiing airplane while surrounded by HUNDREDS of other Nazis ready to shoot him the moment he turned to run if he won the fight? Or surviving ridiculous jumps and turns in racing mine cars – to me the most ludicrous scene in any of the four Indiana Jones movies by far. Seriously, forget the issues with physics, etc: why would anyone ever build mine cart tracks with those kinds of dips, climbs, and turns? Silly.

To me this scene really fits more in the same category as using a several hundred pound stone crypt as a floating shield from a surface fire in The Last Crusade (yeah, no way that would sink before they ever got underneath it). Not only does it show him as tough as nails and athletic, but smart. And not just knowledgeable about ancient civilizations, but brainy smart and street smart.

Seriously, go watch all of those scenes (I linked to a few of the clips above). Tell me which scene stands out as the most difficult to buy to you. I’d bet it isn’t the nuked fridge.

It’s not like the Indiana Jones series is meant to be realistic. It was based on ridiculous, over the top serials from the 1930′s. Crystal Skull absolutely fit right in to that mold. Of course it is stupid that Indiana Jones could survive the nuclear blast (much less the fight that preceding it at his age). But he’s freaking Indiana Jones. That’s the POINT!

Did Crystal Skull break Spielberg’s promise of as little CGI as possible. Absolutely. Were the CGI groundhogs, etc annoying. Sure. But the movie fits. I’d easily rank it above Temple of Doom over all (though still behind Last Crusade and Raiders), and it has solid rewatchability. Do i have concerns about them trying to make a 5th movie? Oh yeah. Lucas/Spielberg barely got away with not ruining a classic trilogy the way Lucas had already done with the Star Wars prequels. I don’t know that we’ll get that lucky again.

But Crystal Skull is fun, and it belongs just as it is.