CANNES, France — After years of waiting, months of hype, and more than a little sniping about its elderly action hero, the new Indiana Jones movie was finally unveiled in Cannes yesterday.

“Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” received its first showing at the film festival and the verdict is in: It’s not as bad as everyone feared, but not as great as everyone hoped. Some critics complained that the film appeared to be little more than a walk-through for its veteran cast, while others suggested that it was a perfectly acceptable chapter in the “Indiana Jones” franchise.

Harrison Ford, who is reprising his role as the whip-cracking adventurer at the age of 65, joined director Steven Spielberg and producer George Lucas on the French Riviera for the world premiere. Even the Cannes critics (who openly laughed at “The Da Vinci Code” when it screened here in 2006) were not immune to the excitement, which has built up around the film, cheering as the curtain went up and singing along to the famous theme tune.

By the end, they could muster only polite applause. The feeling among many Cannes critics is that this fourth outing has failed to recapture the old Indiana magic.

“They should have left well enough alone,” the critic J. Sperling Reich, who writes for FilmStew.com, told the Associated Press. “It really looked like they were going through the motions.”

But the French critic Alain Spira told the AP that he thought the applause following the screening was well earned.

“It’s good,” he said. “It’s a product that is polished, industrial; we’re not getting ripped off in terms of quality. You know what you’re going to see, you see what you get, and when you leave you’re happy.”

Perhaps in anticipation of a lukewarm reception, Mr. Ford was in a bullish mood after the screening when asked about the perils of reviving a beloved franchise.

“I’m not afraid at all,” he said. “I expect to have the whip turned on me. It’s not unusual for something that is popular to be disdained by some people and I fully expect it and I’m not really worried about it. I’m here for the people who pay to get in — they are my customers, and my focus is on providing the best experience I can for them. Somehow I feel inured from professional criticism. I know that we made the movie to reacquaint people with the pure joy that can happen in a dark room with a bunch of other people seeing something you haven’t seen before which will just kick your butt.”

It’s been 19 years since Indiana Jones rode into the sunset in “The Last Crusade,” and Mr. Ford said that donning his famously battered fedora had brought on “a wave of unlikely nostalgia.”

“Putting the costume on reminded me of all the good times. They all came flooding back,” he said. “These films are maybe the most significant moment professionally in my life. To progress the whole story was just really wonderful.”

“Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” is set in 1957, but it is not strictly a story of Cold War intrigue. Aside from nefarious Soviets, the plot manages to incorporate space aliens, the infamous Area 51, and the search for El Dorado. It also boasts the return of Karen Allen, who proved a worthy romantic foil in the original “Raiders of the Lost Ark” as Marion Ravenwood, and Shia LeBeouf, who provides a dose of youthful exuberance in the role of Mutt Williams (who may or may not be the love child of Marion and Indiana).

Mr. Spielberg admitted he had taken some persuading to revive the franchise, but said he had bowed to public demand.

“I had so many people come up over the years and ask when another one was coming out,” he said. “The only two movies anyone ever asks me that question about are ‘E.T.’ and ‘Indiana Jones.’ “

Such was the anticipation surrounding “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” and its top-secret script that burglars broke into Mr. Spielberg’s office and stole files containing images from the film, only to be caught in a sting operation when they tried to sell them.

Asked if there will be a fifth installment — presumably with Mr. LeBeouf carrying the franchise into the future — Mr. Spielberg replied: “If you want more of them. We will certainly have our ear to the ground and that will dictate what happens from here.”