CANNES, France (AFP) - The latest chapter in the whip-cracking adventures of Indiana Jones survived its first perilous outing in the Kingdom of Critical Knives on Sunday, winning a comfortable round of applause from critics at a preview in Cannes.

Starring Harrison Ford, 65, and set in the late 1950s of the Cold War, "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" sees its swashbuckling archeologist hero racing against Soviet agents to recover a mysterious pre-Colombian skull in the wilds of Peru.

"It's well made, you get your money's worth, and enjoy it," said Paris-Match critic Alain Spira. "It's like a ride on your favourite merry-go-round, with the same characters, the same laughs."

"Harrison Ford still has the energy," he added.

But London's Daily Telegraph critic David Gritten was less enthusiastic.

"It's not that (it) is bad, exactly. But it's undeniably creaky," he said.

"He doesn't wear the fedora with quite the same jaunty angle, his bullwhip doesn't crack as smartly -- and Harrison Ford looks all of his 65 years."

The world premiere of the latest instalment in the Indiana Jones saga, and the first in 19 years, gets its official world release at a 7 p.m. (1700 GMT) gala premiere Sunday at Cannes and is the hottest ticket at this year's edition of the world's biggest film festival.

Hollywood blockbusters have a chequered history at Cannes, with the 2006 "Da Vinci Code", for instance, mauled by the pack of 4,000 journalists attending the festival.

So the critical response to this fourth Indiana Jones adventure from Hollywood blockbuster maestros Steven Spielberg and George Lucas has been almost as hotly-awaited as the film itself.

Critics arrived an hour early to snatch a chair in the 2,300-seat theatre and the two-hour movie won laughs and a round of friendly applause at its end.

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