SUCH WAS the anticipation surrounding Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull that TV crews were interviewing journalists on the way into the 1pm press screening yesterday at the Festival de Cannes, where it had its world premiere last night.
Nobody wanted to risk not getting in, and the 2,000-seat auditorium was almost full by 12.30pm. When the curtain opened, some journalists sang the series theme tune, familiar since director Steven Spielberg introduced Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).
However, it's Elvis Presley singing Hound Dog on the soundtrack as the new film opens in Nevada, 1957. An opening skirmish at a US air force base pits archaeologist-adventurer Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford, in the role for the fourth time) against Soviet agents led by glacial Col Dr Irina Spalko, played by Cate Blanchett with short dark hair, riding boots and a rapier.
We're in Cold War territory here, and students carrying "Better dead than red" banners rally at the college where Jones teaches. A brash motorcycle-riding young man named Mutt (Shia La Beouf) advises him that the life of his old friend, Professor Oxley (John Hurt) is in danger.
This leads Jones and Mutt on a quest to find an ancient crystal skull, said to have been stolen from the lost city of Akator in the Amazon in the 16th century. Marian Ravenwood (Karen Allen), Jones's long-lost love from Raiders of the Lost Ark, just happens to be Mutt's mother, and she gets involved in the search, as does Soviet scientist Spalko, with her limitless horde of troops.
There had been speculation that the 19-year gap since the last Indiana Jones movie was too long, and that Ford, at 65, was too old. This is jokily addressed when Mutt cheekily asks Jones, "What age are you? Like 80?" When the movie then settles into a much too long series of expository scenes, it does seem like Spielberg may have lost the plot.
Happily, the film recovers with aplomb in the second half for a thrilling chase through the Amazon jungle that piles one incident atop another and moves at a breathless pace. It involves machine guns, karate and a sword fight between Mutt and Spalko on moving vehicles. Jones gets to wield his bullwhip and again is faced with his fear of snakes.
And there is an important revelation that should not be given away here, but should be guessed by most viewers.
Hundreds were turned away from the packed 50-minute press conference after the screening, with Spielberg, producer George Lucas and the seven leading actors on the panel. At the rear of the room, dozens of TV crews were lined up like a firing squad.
Asked about the theft of computer files from the production office, Spielberg said, "There was a break-in and over 300 pictures were stolen, but they were given to a website that told us about it and we set up a sting operation and got everything returned." Will there be a fifth Indiana Jones film? "Only if you want more of them," Spielberg said. "So many people have been asking me for years to do this one, although it took a very long time to convince me."
After the 19-year gap, how did they approach the challenge of "keeping up with the Joneses" of the first three films, and with recent adventure movies such as The Da Vinci Code and the National Treasure franchise? "We didn't decide to one-up the imitators," producer Lucas said.
Asked if he was worried about a critical backlash, Harrison Ford replied: "I'm not afraid at all. I expect to have that whip turned on me . . . But this film is such a celebration of the movies that I feel inured from criticism."
Cate Blanchett blanched when a Russian TV reporter questioned her. Before it was asked, she said, "I'm sorry. I apologise to the entire Russian populace. I hope I'm dubbed when it's released in Russia." The film is released across the world on Thursday.