And now for something a little bit different here today at KSiteTV: A movie review rather than one about TV. To be fair, there was an excellent TV series of Indiana Jones adventures made around 30 years ago that are now available to watch on Disney+, but the topic of conversation right now is the film Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny releasing to theaters this Friday, June 30.
Taking the metaphorical whip and fedora from Steven Spielberg, James Mangold (Logan) directed this one with a script from Mangold, David Koepp, Jez Butterworth, and John-Henry Butterworth, and the film brings back Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones. It’s the fifth installment in the series, and don’t worry: it’s honestly a much better watch than the Crystal Skull movie.
For those who may not have followed pop culture of the past 40 years, Indiana Jones is a professor of archaeology with an interest in very old things that, like pulp heroes of yore, ends up getting himself into daring adventures, many of which involve punching Nazis. Although Harrison Ford is 80 years old at this point, the film uses VFX magic for its opening scenes, showing us a World War II-era Indy doing what he does best. While I enjoyed the movie, this opening sequence was by far my favorite part. It’s a perfect reminder of classic Indy, and the visual effects are nearly perfect as well, giving the illusion that this is the Indiana Jones of decades ago. There are a few moments where it’s a little bit questionable, but for the most part, this was a much bigger success than, say, the CG monstrosities of The Flash movie.
Flash forward a few decades after World War II, and it’s the late 1960s and space and the moon landing are on the minds of the people. The Nazis are long since defeated – or are they? – and Dr. Jones is about to retire in a world that has started to fail him. He’s lost his wife and his son who was introduced in the most recent movie. The neighbors are playing loud hippie music. What’s a guy to do?
Enter Helena Shaw. She’s the daughter of a friend of Indy’s from those opening scenes… and he may have something she’s looking for. Similar to the scenes set in World War II, we see an Indy that looks like Harrison Ford in his Patriot Games era in a flashback with Toby Jones, who plays her father. Typical for Indiana Jones films, there are chases through town and daring escapes. Oh, and yeah, one of those Nazis from the flashback (Jurgen Voller as played by Mads Mikkelson) is also involved in this quest.
So, of course, there’s globe trotting, more chases, clues and gadgets, and there are appearances by some folks we remember and love from past Indiana Jones movies, though sadly no grown-up Short Round. If this is indeed the last Indiana Jones movie with Harrison Ford, it’s a much better send off. I will warn that there is a big “huh, so that happened” moment, but by this point, we should be used to that from these movies.
What doesn’t work here? For starters, I’m not 100% sure who the audience is for this movie. The back-and-forth between Indy and his god-daughter is fun, and thankfully not too flirty, perhaps for the best since she’s the daughter of his friend, who he’d known since she was a child. Phoebe Waller-Bridge does add spice to the proceedings, though. There’s violence, but again, it’s to be expected from an Indiana Jones film. But also… there’s a kid. Now, 40 years ago a kid seemed to be around to appeal to younger audiences for those of us who would be around the same age as Short Round. As an adult, the kid “Teddy” (played ably by Ethann Isidore) just frequently gave me feelings of “what is he doing here and why?” I assume it’s to show that Helena has her own network of support, but it seemed like an extra complication, and would a child want to see an 80-year-old man be an adventurer? Well, maybe… a lot of this movie was pretty cool.
The other thing that I might point out is the movie’s length — now, I don’t know what could possibly be cut out, but at 154 minutes it felt like it was about a half hour too long. I wasn’t bored, but I also don’t know that we needed to spend that much time on this trip.
James Mangold was a good choice to direct Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, for reasons similar to why he was such a great pick for The Wolverine and Logan. He seems to get the adventure aspect down and the actors all gave good performances. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the original movies, but I felt like this matched the vibe well, at the very least, and it was an adventure that seemed fun. As I said, though, I would be satisfied if this was the final movie in this series, because a lot of things seem properly wrapped up and bringing back a franchise too many times can get tedious. But, in this case, this was a sequel that was worth taking the time to make.
KSiteTV Rating: 8.5/10. It may be that I’m just the right age to like a movie like this, but Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and Mads Mikkelson were all great and I appreciated revisiting some old friends. The movie may get long, as I said, but it helps that it’s so well shot with fabulous locations and adventure. Die-hard fans might find more to criticize, but as a casual viewer of the series I was impressed. Look for the movie in theaters June 30.
