Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)
Director: James Mangold
Cast: Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Antonio Banderas Synopsis: Archaeologist Indiana Jones races against time to retrieve a legendary artifact that can change the course of history. Runtime: 2 hr 34 min Release Date: June 30, 2023 Well, it's been 15 years since we've last seen Indiana Jones on the big screen, and this time it's certainly Harrison Ford's last ride as the iconic archaeologist, as the actor who turned 80 years old just a couple weeks after the film debuted in theaters confirmed. Coincidentally, Ford's age ended up fulfilling Mutt's (Shia LaBeouf's) quip to Indy in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, "What are you, like 80?" And yes---that film--the one everyone tries to pretend isn't a part of the franchise, is the sole reason for the existence of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny--as Spielberg and Lucas wanted to give fans one last satisfying ride to make up for the disappointing Kingdom of the Crystal Skull--which was originally intended to bring a rousing conclusion to the franchise.
There's good news for you if you're a die hard Indy fan--you can breathe a sigh of relief as I can confirm there is no fridge scene or aliens in Dial of Destiny. Instead, this film takes us back to the roots of the franchise in terms of villains and action. Indy is once again battling his arch nemesis--the Nazis, although this time we are post-World War II and are set in 1969, days after the historic moon landing. These Nazis, led by Jurgen Voller (loosely based on Warner von Braun--the designer of the Saturn V Rocket) are still reeling from Germany's defeat, and are searching for Archimedes' Dial--a historical artifact believed to have the capability of reversing time. So you can see where this is going. Despite Spielberg not returning to direct this final outing, I initially had pretty high hopes for this film, as James Mangold has proved himself more than capable with films like 3:10 to Yuma and Logan. My expectations were lowered, however, after the Cannes premiere of the film and the initial early reviews being fairly negative. Nevertheless, I was never going to pass on an Indiana Jones film, no matter what. And for the most part, Dial of Destiny was mostly what I expected it to be. The positives first. The film has some great action sequences, with the opening scene set in 1944 involving a moving train being the strongest. It feels just like old times in Raiders or Last Crusade, with a young Indy (de-aged with CGI) battling Nazis for control over an artifact. It's thrilling, intense, and populated with a lot of close calls involving tunnels and loose track. There are some other good action scenes in the film, with the sequences overall being more grounded and realistic than a lot of the action in Crystal Skull. On a side note, however, as good as the CGI de-aging was on Ford, they could not replace his voice to match his younger self, and the cognitive dissonance was distracting. Perhaps in the future there will be a remedy for this, who knows. Harrison Ford also puts in a solid performance here, as we'd expect--but it's certainly a different Indy than we remember. Ford's voice is decidedly raspy, his movements are slowed down, and he's simply...old. The screenplay recognizes this, and we're shown an Indy that knows he's toward the end of his life and wants to get the pieces back together that made him happy decades ago. In that sense, it adds to the realism of what our hero is going though. The tried and true saying goes, "Your hero is only as good as the villain." And as mentioned, Dial brings back the best villains the franchise ever had--the Nazis. It's a more than welcome return--even though this is the third time we've seen them. Mads Mikkelsen turns in a strong performance as Voller, and we as the audience feel the stakes are stronger this time around, as we all know the consequences if Indy can't stop Voller and his henchmen from returning to pre-World War II. There are, unfortunately, quite a few issues though. While Mangold definitely shoots capably, we don't get any long shots we're used to seeing from Spielberg--instead it's cut in the more traditional fast cut style. There's no shots that stand out or are memorable, and it just has that feeling of being plain--whereas even in Crystal Skull there was genuinely great directing moments and shots (think the opening wide, long landscape shot or the motorcycle chase or Indy facing the nuclear mushroom cloud). While I wouldn't go as far as to say that this a "depressing" Indy film as some reviewers have pointed out, there's certainly a much less sense of fun and humor throughout. The best Indy films were ones that used interplay between characters (whether it was Indy and Marion, Indy and his father, Indy and Mutt, etc) to create humor and fleshed out those characters to make you actually care about them. Here, we're introduced to Indy's goddaughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), who despite getting a brief backstory, we don't resonate with as an audience. This is further hampered by the fact that Waller-Bridge and Ford just don't have much chemistry on screen whatsoever--it's a very far cry from Ford and Connery in Last Crusade, or even the social dynamic of Indy, Marion, and Mutt in Crystal Skull. Say what you want about that film--but at least it brought Marion back to have an actual role in the film, and at its core still had heart as it re-focused on Indy's complicated relationships with family. There's very little Dial has to offer in that department, (at least until the final scene) so we're left with a film that's rather thin in character work. To be perfectly honest, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was a better sendoff for Indy than Dial of Destiny, with him marrying Marion and the final shot being Indy snatching his beloved hat away from Mutt just as he was about to don it to take up the mantle of the iconic hero. Dial of Destiny is by no means a bad film--and I would still place it above Temple of Doom in the franchise ranks. It still possesses a solid villain, an interesting MacGuffin, and good action sequences, but it lacks the humor and sense of fun that made the other Indy's so memorable (yes, even Crystal Skull), and the Indy, Helena, and Teddy (Helena's sidekick, played by Ethann Isidore) trio is nowhere near a match of Indy, Marion, and Mutt in the previous film. In all, even though Dial of Destiny may not go out as a particularly memorable Indiana Jones adventure, it's still a worthy addition as part of the iconic franchise. Grade: B (85%) Written by Anthony Watkins, July 10, 2023 |