Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

This review may contain spoilers!

 

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is the fifth instalment in the Indiana Jones series and features Indy picking up the bullwhip once again to pursue a legendary artefact that is also being hunted by a former Nazi scientist. This film has an opening that sent me right back to that eight year old sitting on the couch watching the original trilogy with my Dad - the biggest fan of all. The opening manages to deliver another classic Indy adventure during the fall of Nazi Germany, a small adventure that introduced a lot of key elements for this film while also presenting Indiana Jones in his prime. Yet my love for the first act doesn't end there, this film introduces us to a seventy year old Indiana Jones on the cusp of retirement nicely too. There is a real progression from the Indy we know to the characteristics he would still have or have chanaged by this point in his life. At one point we even see him really get excited and deliver a compelling history lecture that absolutely captures this man with such an adventurous love for the past. The film hooks our old archaeologist back into adventure in a way that really grabs the audience from a Subway spanning horse chase to a tuk tuk chase in Tangier. Thematically I also loved the contrast between Indiana Jones' love for the past and Dr. Voller's obsession with it - this made for quite the compelling antagonist.

The cinematography used throughout is decent, it makes full use of the action set pieces and gives a lot of energy to a film that could otherwise have looked slow with an older lead. The visual effects are extremely impressive, the first fifteen-twenty minutes of this film with the deaging technology is a feat unto itself. I also cannot praise John Williams' score enough, there is a lot of calling back to Raiders of the Lost Ark here and it works very well tonally.

 

John Rhys-Davies, who played Sallah, is an absolutely joy to see return; Rhys-Davies comes back with such immense presence and clear love for Ford's protagonist performance. Thomas Kretschmann, who played Colonel Weber, is one of the few minor antagonists who really steals the show; Kretschmann brings an impassive yet firm approach to authority that really grips you in the opening scenes. Toby Jones, who played Basil Shaw, is a meek yet extremely intelligent figure; I loved seeing Jones as a real fish out of water type that Ford's Jones was desperately trying to exfiltrate. Mads Mikkelsen, who played Dr. Voller, gives one of the best performances in the feature after Ford; I liked that there was his usual cold exterior paired with a sort of ineptitude that meant his villain overstepped in a few great scenes.

However, the best performance came from Harrison Ford, who played Indiana Jones. This character is Harrison Ford, you cannot really separate the two and I feel bad for the next actor who inevitably will be put up to the task. Ford has cornered entire famous roles and performances over the years, but not even Han Solo compares to the sincere love for the role that is on display here. Indy is a very blunt yet also brash individual, cantankerous to new people and his enemies alike. Yet what I love about Ford's acting is how genuinely he hides this feeling of caring under a gruff exterior. Indiana Jones has always been passionate about history and doing the right thing and those elements are so strongly present here throughout. Ford uniquely brings a sort of regret and grief to the character this time around, we learn Indy lost his son and that his marriage has fallen apart. A lot of the Indiana Jones we get in this film is a man still trying to do right and reconcile the past while also dealing with his own personal remorse. This might not be as good as the original trilogy but Harrison Ford is as good as ever.

The charm of seeing an Indiana Jones film does fade away when you sit with this film for too long, and given the exorbitant runtime this happens swiftly. The second act for this film moves far slower than the first, it isn't broken up with stunning action pieces and begins to meander through the adventure a lot more. The core issue here is that Indy is partnered with his goddaughter, Helena, who not only has a criminal background but who consistently rebels against the older figure's guidance. Helena is fated for a point of redemption, you can tell that almost immediately, but the fact it takes her so long and the way she really embraces being morally against our protagonist for the bulk of the feature makes those moments where we are left with just her and Indy a bit of a slump. In a lot of ways it felt like they recycled the dynamic between Indy and Mutt in just a mildly different manner. Yet even this would have worked out alright if it wasn't for that final act and the poor use of a time travel plot device. Watching Indiana Jones and a plane full of Nazis zooming over Ancient Roman warships just pushed me right out of this film. In the original trilogy the otherworldly elements were quite subtle and all the more shocking when they revealed their full power. One thing moviegoers disliked about Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was the very jarring and in your face alien life reveal, this film functions in a similar way. The sudden push into the past was a jarring moment and watching a dying Indiana Jones trying to rationalise staying in the past felt odd and almost uncharacteristic. The time travel plot also introduced some elements that meant the timetravel had to happen for certain things they discovered to exist and I can find this type of science-fiction writing to be quite lazy at times. Overall, this film needed more of the spirit we got in the first act and fewer time travel shenanigans, annoying legacy characters and odd subplots that really bloated the runtime.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who played Helena, doesn't really fit the snarky badass who lives in the thrill of the criminal world; I found the character persona Waller-bridge settled on and presented to really grate with the rest of the feature. Antonio Banderas, who played Renaldo, is woefully underused in this feature; Banderas really dishes some low stakes exposition and otherwise settles quite comfortably into the background. Karen Allen, who played Marion, has one scene that I feel like already played out in the last feature; Allen looks as unhappy as I felt about her character being squandered. Shaunette Renée Wilson, who played Mason, was perhaps the most baffling role in the film; Wilson's character felt extremely mismatched to the antagonist plot and I really questioned the purpose of the CIA subplot. Boyd Holbrook and Olivier Richters, who played Klaber and Hauke respectively, are very forgettable as the token goons of the feature; Holbrook is an actor who often hams up his performances but he really lays it on thick for this one. Ethann Isidore, who played Teddy, is the annoying child sidekick this film really didn't have much need of; Isidore often feels like the extra tacked on piece of the main protagonists. Alaa Safi, who played Rahim, just really overdoes things as a minor antagonist in the film; Safi and Waller-Bridge feel like they are acting for the first time together in their scene as opposed to playing characters with a shared history.

Can someone please keep James Mangold away from aging pop culture icons? I would give Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny a 5.5/10.