''What are you, like, 80?'' a brash young man asks the intrepid archaeologist Dr. Henry Jones Jr. in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It's as if the kid were reading the audience's mind. Harrison Ford doesn't look bad for his age -- we should all be as fit at 65 -- but he does seem awfully old when he dons Indy's trademark fedora and flashes his I'll-get-out-of-this-somehow smirk. Indiana Jones is not supposed to be this jowly, this gray. It's discomfiting, seeing our heroes turn into relics before our eyes.

That was an inevitable consequence of waiting nearly 20 years to crank out another Indiana Jones adventure. Ford, director Steven Spielberg and producer George Lucas have been promising to return to the popular franchise for the past two decades, but it took that long for someone to come up with a script they could all get excited about.

In hindsight, the delay is a bit baffling, since the plot of Crystal Skull -- the script was written by frequent Spielberg collaborator David Koepp (War of the Worlds, Jurassic Park), based on a story by Lucas and Jeff Nathanson -- is easily its weakest element. Set in 1957, the era of the Cold War, the Red Scare and A-bomb testing, Crystal Skull takes the franchise away from the fantasy genre and into science-fiction territory. It's not a coincidence that the terms ''Area 51'' and ''Roswell'' are glimpsed during the stupendous 20-minute sequence that opens the film.

Unfortunately, that opening -- which includes our introduction to Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett), the icy Soviet agent who wants to unlock the secrets of the titular artifact and use them to help the Russkies rule the world -- turns out to be the high point of Crystal Skull. The script was kept under unusually tight wraps during filming, but the biggest surprise in the picture is how talky the whole enterprise is. Particularly deadly is a long stretch in mid-film where the heroes walk through caves, talk about what they're seeing, get captured and talk with their captors, escape and talk some more.

Supporting characters such as Indy's new sidekick Mac (Ray Winstone), who may or may not be a double agent, and Professor Oxley (John Hurt), an old friend who has spent a little too much time in proximity of the skull, have little to do other than serve as expository devices (Hurt in particular is wasted; you could lift his character right out of the movie and the story wouldn't change a bit). Even Blanchett, who emits a vague dominatrix vibe from her first scene, turns out to be a disappointing villain: She's all evil stares, with little bite.

Karen Allen fares a bit better as Marion Ravenwood, Indy's squeeze from Raiders of the Lost Ark, who returns with some huge news for the hero. Allen, too, has little to do other than deliver some information, but the sight of her huge grin is a pleasure for anyone who remembers the first film. She also shares a scene with Ford, in which their characters are sinking in quicksand, that briefly conjures up the spirit of The African Queen.

If only Spielberg had been able to do that more often. The action sequences in Crystal Skull are further proof Spielberg knows how to direct action better than anyone: Using camera movement instead of rapid-fire editing, sequences such as the extended fight/chase atop trucks through the jungle or a scramble through a patch of sand inhabited by the meanest red ants on Earth deliver the thrills audiences expect from an Indiana Jones picture.

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