Time: 154 Minutes
Age Rating: M– Violence
Cast:
Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones
Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Helena Shaw
Mads Mikkelsen as Jürgen Voller
Antonio Banderas as Renaldo
John Rhys-Davies as Sallah
Toby Jones as Basil Shaw
Boyd Holbrook as Klaber
Ethann Isidore as Teddy Kumar
Director: James Mangold

Daredevil archaeologist Indiana Jones races against time to retrieve a legendary dial that can change the course of history. Accompanied by his goddaughter, he soon finds himself squaring off against Jürgen Voller, a former Nazi who works for NASA.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny was one of my most anticipated movies of the year. I like the films in the series, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Last Crusade are classics and among my favourite movies. I was very mixed on Temple of Doom; it has as many bad things as it does good things, but there’s a lot to admire in it. I even genuinely like the much-derided Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and consider it to be a good movie. While the next film wouldn’t be helmed by Steven Spielberg, Logan and Walk the Line director James Mangold would be stepping in, and I thought he was a good choice. With its rather muted reception after the premiere at Cannes, things weren’t looking good for it. Still, I watched the movie and I’m happy to say that I liked it at the very least, but I am disappointed I didn’t like it a lot more.

The strongest part of the movie is it’s opening action sequence, in which it focuses on a younger (and de-aged) Indiana Jones in World War II. It’s a little too long and there are some issues with the visual effects, but I enjoyed it. The main adventure however felt less compelling than the previous four movies. The concept of the story is good enough and the plot was fairly entertaining, but I just wasn’t that invested. The story feels as tired and worn out as its main character, and while the film leans into Indy’s older age, that excuse can only go so far for a film this low energy. Dial of Destiny is 2.5 hours long and you certainly feel the length. So much of the movie felt drawn out and padded out, it’s not helped by the sluggish pacing. To me, the biggest issue of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is that it was too safe, even among all the alien stuff. Perhaps the backlash to that movie caused the writers of filmmakers of Dial of Destiny to take a less adventurous approach, as Dial of Destiny plays as a greatest hits of past Indy films. For all the implausible action and over the top moments, it doesn’t do anything that special. Much of the movie felt repetitive with the situations that Indy and co. find themselves in. That said, the third act does go in a more insane direction and regardless of the execution, it is really the only time the movie does something unexpected and daring. It’s a shame that this turn happens before the closing of the film instead of much earlier. Also, whereas the previous adventures are resolved in definitive ways, Dial of Destiny ends very abruptly without a satisfying conclusion. Even the attempt at an emotional close felt surface level and unearned. While it isn’t one of the main issues of the movie, the attempts at playing on nostalgia especially with the dialogue never worked for me. I won’t get into it too much, but going into the movie, I was curious as to how it would jump off the ending of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull since to me that was a fitting conclusion to the character. Dial of Destiny basically destroys that happy ending in order to place Indy in his current state for the film. Comparing the end points of the 4th and 5th films, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was a far more satisfying ending to the character, and while I don’t like saying this about movies, DoD really doesn’t do enough to justify its existence.

Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones is unsurprisingly one of the best parts of the movie. You can tell that he absolutely loves playing this character and that shines through as he once again puts everything into one of his most iconic characters. While the emotional scenes aren’t always handled the best, Ford undoubtedly plays those moments perfectly. Phoebe Waller-Bridge plays Indiana’s goddaughter and she was pretty good, though the writing of her character was very inconsistent and confused. She is meant to go through an arc or change over the course of the film, but it’s not very convincing. Still, PWB adds a lot of well needed energy to the film. Unfortunately, the chemistry between these two leads isn’t that great, but I’d put that down to the writing again. Mads Mikkelsen plays the main villain, and the role isn’t all that special (a disappointment considering the large number of antagonists he has played). Still, Mikkelsen as usual has a great screen presence and does a lot with what he’s given. Other actors like Boyd Holbrook, Toby Jones, Antonio Banderas give commendable performances, even if a lot of them were underutilised.

The biggest thing working against the movie is the fact that Steven Spielberg isn’t, it would be a great challenge for whoever would take on the job instead. James Mangold is a more than capable director, and his involvement was one of the things that gave me hope for the film. And yet, it was likely the most disappointing part of the whole film. That’s not to say that is direction is bad, far from it. It is competent and much of the technical elements are solid, with some great production design and a decent score from John Williams. At the same time, it felt that any director could’ve made this movie, even one less skilled than Mangold. Directionwise, there isn’t anything clever or distinct, and it really feels like it’s missing something. The action is well shot and coherent, but much like the rest of the movie, is sorely lacking in energy. Most of these sequences go on a lot longer than they needed to; they get boring after a while and aren’t creative or interesting enough to sustain my interest. The imagery is mostly fine, but the imagery isn’t particularly memorable. The worst aspects on a technical level are the visual effects and CGI, especially with how reliant the movie is on them. The occasionally dodgy effects don’t ruin the movie, but they took me out of the movie when present. Dial of Destiny uses de-aging effects on Harrison Ford in the younger Indiana Jones scenes, and when he isn’t in motion is looks fine (if bordering on uncanny valley), but really suffers during the scenes of action.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is entertaining enough with mostly competent direction and good performances. Overall though, it’s a disappointingly safe film, with a stretched out and passable story and lacks the memorable elements, passion and energy of the previous 4 movies. I can’t really tell who this movie will be for and who it won’t be for, but I guess if you hated Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, you might get some enjoyment out of this. For me though, that film at least had a far more satisfying end to Indiana Jones’s run than Dial of Destiny. For what its worth, it is worth checking out if you liked any of the previous movies. While I’m not unhappy that I watched it, it’s by far the most disappointing movie I’ve seen this year.