Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)

6/10

Starring

Harrison Ford

Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Antonio Banderas

John Rhys-Davies

 

Directed by James Mangold

 

This is the fifth (supposedly) and final instalment in the Indiana Jones film series. It follows Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008). The way it starts, with the magnificent CGI used to do the de-ageing of Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones), is mind-blowing. A lot of people did not like, the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but I did, and I was really looking forward to seeing this. The massive expense that went to locations, costumes and special effects is so glaring when you see this film. I just wondered why they did not think to dial it down a bit. It is the first in the series to not have either Steven Spielberg or George Lucas directing or working on the plot. Maybe this is why it is not the best of the five.

The film dragged more than it should, wasting so much time in mystery and running around than it really mattered, but I am not mad about it. The director wanted to make this film grand and a last hurrah to Indiana Jones’s adventure. What I felt the film did not need, was the whole CGI of Jones jumping about in the beginning.

As you would expect, Harrison Ford is back with his hat and whip as Indiana Jones, and he is wrapped up in another world changing adventure. He is paired with Phoebe Waller Bridge, who plays Helena, Jones God-daughter. She is also an archaeologist, and she came for the dial that was in Jones custody. The film starts with Jones getting possession of the dial and giving it to Helena’s father who, who almost lost his mind trying to understand it, before giving up and gave the dial to Jones to destroy it. In the way future, Helena comes for the dial, she is not as straightforward as Jones would have hoped. Her complicated past and greed led to the dial falling into the wrong hands.

What is an Indiana Jones story without the bad guys, the Germans (or in this case a particular German, Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen)) who is also interested in the dial. He wants to reassemble the dial so that he can change history. Our duo and their sidekicks and aids are all out in this chase film to stop Voller from changing the world history as we know it.

Unlike what many have said, I was not particularly won over by the Helena character, I have no issue with the performance, just the character itself.

It is not new that this film will be a box office flop, I think the whole Indiana Jones character has had its run and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull should have been the last. The problem is older viewers who loved the first three Indiana Jones movies, were not too keen on the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and if any has Disney+ will probably choose to wait for it to drop there and see it, than go to the cinema.

Also, studios keep packing too many blockbusters into the same window that there was no chance of this film ever making a huge splash. Disney will easily add it to their Disney+ library soon, but would have loved for this film to have been a hit both at the cinemas and on their streaming platform.