CHAN:
Australian actress Cate Blanchett walked the red carpet for the Australian premier of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull on Wednesday evening.

STORY:
The movie had its premier in the Cannes film festival, and received mixed reactions from notoriously picky critics.

[Cate Blanchett, Actress]:
"I hadn't seen it before I saw it in Cannes the other night, which is nerve breaking because they can be a very cruel audience and then they all stood up and cheered and was really like Harrison was the second coming because looking up the Croisette it was just a sea of fans.”

Blanchett, with severe fringe, dark hair and over-the-top Russian accent, plays evil Soviet agent Irina Spalko who races Jones to the secret of the crystal skull.

[Cate Blanchett, Actress]:
"You don't get the chance to play a villain as a woman on screen very often, an out and out baddy and it is a villain with a wink, it is a bit of 'campery' going on, it is a story book world so I really relished it."

The film, conceived by George Lucas, is a familiar recipe of thrilling chases, spectacular stunts, mystical symbols, ancient civilizations and jokes about Jones's fear of snakes. But it also ventures into the realms of extra terrestrials and parallel worlds, and tackles issues including McCarthyism in the United States in the 1950s, the destructive power of nuclear weapons and even the disappearance of forests in the Amazon.

The first three Indiana Jones movies made over $1 billion at the global box office in the 1980s dollar terms, and DVD sales have been huge since.