Here’s our review for “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” which opens in theaters on Friday nationwide…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
There was a lot of hope that director James Mangold could resurrect the once great “Indiana Jones” franchise with the fifth and final film in the series when he took over for Steven Spielberg, who failed to thrill audiences with the fourth installment — “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.”
That film was mired in a myriad of issues not the least of which was the obvious attempt at resurrecting past characters from previous films in hopes of cashing in on the nostalgia surrounding everybody’s favorite treasure hunter. The problem was the first three “Indiana Jones” movies were such an achievement — where I’d argue “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” was the best of the series — that numerous movies started copying that formula and producing beloved homages.
“The Mummy” starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz obviously had ties back to “Indiana Jones” as well as the “National Treasure” films with the first one still standing out as a truly fun and inventive popcorn flick. In recent years, the treasure hunting phenomenon even produced a TV series called “Outer Banks” on Netflix that also centers around a bunch of horny teenagers but the constant search for the next great bauble really does work on that show.
Sadly, that left little material to mine when it came time to make a fourth “Indiana Jones” film and somehow the fifth film tried to dig a little deeper yet still came up with next to nothing when attempting to give Harrison Ford a grand exit as one of his most iconic characters.
As good as Mangold has been in past genre films — here’s looking at you “Logan” — it almost feels like he put on an “Indiana Jones” greatest hits record and attempted to rehash every single trick in the book when creating this latest sequel. It’s not the finale we all wanted, especially after our hopes were so high, but at least it’s moderately better than “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” so there’s that at least, right?
With that said, let’s get to our full review for “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”…
PLOT
The film opens with a trip back in time to the end of World War II with Germany on the brink of defeat — and what is an “Indiana Jones” movie without a few Nazis — and Indiana Jones is on the hunt for an artifact. Sound familiar yet?
This time around, Indy is looking for the spear that supposedly pierced Jesus Christ during the crucifixion, which is the same treasure that the Nazi’s so desperately want as well. It turns out the spear is fake but there is a different kind of treasure hiding in plain sight, which is discovered by nefarious scientist Jürgen Voller.
This artifact is one half of the Antikythera — a dial created by Greek inventor Archimedes — that can supposedly find fissures in time. Yep, you guessed it, this dial will allow a user with correct coordinates to actually travel back in time, which is something the Nazis could potentially use to fix what went wrong when it came to losing the war.
Through a harrowing chase across a speeding train and a whole lot of de-aging on Harrison Ford, Indy — alongside his new pal Basil Shaw — manages to get the dial away from the Nazis and Voller, who is most desperate to possess the trinket. Truth be told, the opening 20 minute sequence is the most exhilarating part of the entire film because it truly feels like an “Indiana Jones” movie in all the best ways.
Fast forward to 1969 and Dr. Henry Jones is teaching his last college class to a group of sleepy teenagers before he retires from his chosen profession of archeology. These days, Dr. Jones is a loner facing a contentious divorce from his wife Marion and there’s not much that keeps him going until he gets a visit from his goddaughter Helena — Basil’s daughter — and she needs his help tracking down the other half of Archimedes dial.
Of course, Indy soon discovers that there are Nazis still lurking in the shadows and they never forgot about that precious dial either because they soon arrive and it’s a chase to find the treasure to see who can uncover this valuable and potentially dangerous weapon.
ACTING, DIRECTING AND SCRIPT
The performances in “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” are fine but nothing really stands out, although the chase sequence at the beginning of the film really does squeeze the last little bit of juice out of Harrison Ford as an action star. Outside of that, Ford just seems exhausted throughout this film, almost like he knows this is the last time he’ll play this character and he’s ready to be done already.
Now make no mistake, Ford is a great actor — go watch his subtle but powerful role on the “Yellowstone” prequel “1923” as proof of what he’s capable of doing these days — but it really does feel like he just showed up to work on this production.
Perhaps the biggest grievance with this film is Mads Mikkelsen being wasted as another mustache twirling (he doesn’t actually have a mustache) villain who should be a worthy foil for Indiana Jones but instead he largely just fades into the background and doesn’t have much to do in this movie. Mikkelsen obviously has the chops to portray a truly terrifying bad guy but he’s effectively a background character standing behind a group of thugs throughout this film.
Julian Glover in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” is a great example of an actor really embracing the campiness of the role and going toe-to-toe with Ford in every scene. Mikkelsen barely gets a chance to spar with Ford in this film much less feel like his equal.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge is there, too, but she’s ultimately a stand-in and bad facsimile to past characters. Truthfully, her character just feels out of place and unconnected to Indiana Jones, which shouldn’t be the case considering she’s his goddaughter.
As far as the direction goes, Mangold does a good enough job but once again it really feels like he’s just going through the motions with so many scenes in this film. Yes, the chase sequence at the start of the film — I know I’m saying that for like the fifth time — is fantastic but outside of that, it almost felt like Mangold had a checklist that he had to tick off before the credits rolled.
A chase sequence across several vehicles? Check!
A kid who effectively becomes Indy’s sidekick? Check!
A villain who always seems to be one step behind Indy? Check!
Animated maps to show travel between two locations? Check!
Crawling through catacombs/swimming in water with all sorts of icky insects and creatures? Double check!
Plus for a $300 million movie, you’d hope some of the special effects would be better but there are quite a few sequences in this movie that look far worse than what Spielberg did through the first three “Indiana Jones” films with far less technology to work with. If anything, the introduction of CGI and digital effects have made some directors a little too ambitious and the results have been mixed at best.
Without giving away spoilers, let’s talk real quick about the script — written by Jez Butterworth, John Henry Butterworth, David Koepp and James Mangold — because that’s inarguably the biggest problem with this film. It’s almost like they fed in commands to an artificial intelligence program — give us an Indiana Jones story that involves Nazis and crosses between two timelines — and this is what was spit out.
It feels so generic that it’s hard to believe this is what they settled on when greenlighting this movie to go into production.
Also because this is a spoiler-free review, we can’t address the ending or the last 20 minutes of the film but let’s just say this truly is where the movie sped off the tracks and crashed into a ravine. Even the most hardcore Indiana Jones fans are likely to sit there stunned in silenced before asking what the actual fuck?
WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE MOVIE?
The easy answer is a lot.
This film proves that the “Indiana Jones” franchise should have ended with “The Last Crusade,” which is a movie that still holds up so well today. Sadly, Sean Connery is no longer with us because it would have been fun to see him return as Henry Jones Sr. for one more film but alas that never happened.
Instead, Mangold and company decided to try and carbon copy every beloved moment from past “Indiana Jones” films and dump them into this sequel except we get the Wish versions rather than the genuine article. Also with a nearly two and a half hour run time, you’ll be thankful when the final credits actually roll because there are definitely moments when it feels like this movie might never end and it’s an exercise in futility to attempt to enjoy it.
FINAL VERDICT
“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” gets 2 out of 5 on the Skolnick Scale
