Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny review

INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY: 

VERY STANDARD FIFTH “INDY” FILM ENDS SERIES ON STRONG NOTE! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: ** ½ out of 4

DISNEY/LUCASFILM LTD

Harrison Ford is back in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

 

            Harrison Ford (Star Wars franchise, The Fugitive, Air Force One) dons the hat and whip for the last time in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the fifth and final chapter of the Indiana Jones film series and first not to be directed by Steven Spielberg though he is credited as an executive producer alongside George Lucas. This time, James Mangold (Walk the Line, Logan, Ford v. Ferrari) is in the director’s chair and is tasked with bringing Indy back to his roots after the extremely divisive responses towards 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. 

            I’ve enjoyed the Indiana Jones films for the most part, I think the first Raiders of the Lost Ark from 1981 isn’t just the best movie in the series but also a landmark in cinema with incredible practical effects, exciting action, and a fun adventure with a bite to it. Its sequel, The Temple of Doom is often considered the black sheep of the series and was responsible for creating the PG-13 rating, but I love it for just how dark and demented it gets while the third film, The Last Crusade is more light-hearted in tone compared to the previous two, but it’s still a very well-crafted film with an engaging plot and the dynamic between Harrison Ford and Sean Connery in that film is the stuff of legends. 

            The fourth film, The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is objectively the worst with some of the most baffling plot elements and choices made out of any of the movies. However, it does have its moments and it was exciting to see a new Indiana Jones movie in theaters when it came out. 

            Which finally brings us to The Dial of Destiny, and I’ll be honest, I wasn’t super hyped for this movie when it was announced. It’s for pretty much the same reasons people had when Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was in-development, it’s way too late, Harrison Ford is 80 years old now, and both movies ruined what was a perfect ending with Last Crusade to the point where now they’re just beating a dead horse every time a new film was announced. 

            With that said, I was trying to be open to it as James Mangold is a brilliant filmmaker and made some truly excellent movies. Upon seeing the movie, I can say to my surprise that…Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is perfectly average but ends on a strong note. 

            The film follows daring archeologist, Indiana Jones (Ford) racing against time to obtain a legendary dial that can alter the course of history. Accompanied by his goddaughter, Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge-The Iron Lady, Goodbye Christopher Robin, Solo: A Star Wars Story), Indy finds himself squaring off against a former Nazi known as Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen-Casino Royale, Arctic, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore) who plans to use the dial for his own devious ways. 

            The film also stars Antonio Banderas (Desperado/Once Upon a Time in Mexico, The Mask/Legend of Zorro, Shrek franchise) as Renaldo, John Rhys-Davies (Victor/Victoria, The Living Daylights, The Lord of the Rings trilogy) reprising his role as Sallah, Toby Jones (Harry Potter franchise, Finding Neverland, Frost/Nixon) as Basil Shaw, Boyd Holbrook (A Walk Among the Tombstones, Logan, The Sandman) as Klaber, Shaunette Renée Wilson (Billions, The Resident, Black Panther) as Mason, Thomas Kretschmann (The Pianist, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Infinity Pool) as Colonel Weber, and Oliver Richters (Black Widow) as Hauke. 

            Overall, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny has some fun moments and Harrison Ford once again is excellent as the titular character, but it doesn’t really do much new or interesting with the formula. For the most part, it’s just an average Indiana Jones adventure with little surprises and lacking the dark edge of the earlier films.

            The first 20 minutes of the film set during World War II with Indy raiding a Nazi train however is incredible and very well-directed, choreographed, and consistently exciting despite some dodgy de-aging effects on Harrison Ford. It’s easily the best action scene in the movie and one Hell of a first impression that sadly the rest of the film couldn’t quite live up to. 

            There are other standout action scenes in the movie like a fun chase through a city on these three-wheeled carts in the middle of the film and a wild climax involving the dial that I dare not ruin here. But nothing in the film comes close to the high I felt during the Nazi train sequence in the beginning. 

            As always, Harrison Ford is great as Indiana Jones and puts the effort into his performance despite the fact that he’s now 80 and has been playing the character for over 40 years. His performance in this really shows the dedication and love he has for the character and still kicks ass in the role even with his age being a factor. 

            Mads Mikkelsen is also excellent as the film’s villain and dominates just about every scene he’s in. With this soft-spoken yet menacing demeanor and the fact his character was a Nazi, the guy can literally just read the script and still leave a lasting impression…it’s also fitting that he was also the villain in Casino Royale since Spielberg cited James Bond as an inspiration for Indiana Jones. 

            Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s character took some time to warm up to, but by the halfway point I thought she was a good foil for Harrison Ford. She’s no Karen Allen, but she gets the job done well. 

            As already mentioned, the film’s narrative is just a generic Indiana Jones plot that gives more of what we’ve seen before in the other movies. Indy and friends raid a tomb or ancient temple to find a valuable object and have to keep it out of the bad guys’ hands, it often felt like a paint-by-numbers Indiana Jones movie that exists only as a 2 ½ hour time-waster. 

            However, as indifferent as the film is plot-wise, it does end the series on a satisfying note which is more than I can say about Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker or Jurassic World: Dominion’s endings. I won’t give anything away, but the ending did stick the landing for me and almost saved the movie. 

            Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is a serviceable fifth installment of the Indiana Jones franchise with a strong sendoff to the iconic archeologist. It is an improvement over the fourth movie but still can’t quite recapture the magic of the original three films. 

            No aliens, CGI monkeys, or hiding in refrigerators to survive bomb blasts this time around…so that’s good, I guess.