Hey, I saw a new Indiana Jones movie. And (no spoilers) it didn’t suck! INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY is a pretty solid action adventure movie that occasionally (especially in the first half) hits moments of genuine greatness. The opening sequence, featuring an amazingly well-done digitally de-aged Harrison Ford, is the best opener in an Indy movie since Raiders and (possibly) Temple of Doom.
The film does lose a fair bit of momentum in the middle section and the ending wasn’t really as satisfying as it perhaps should have been – despite some fairly audacious plot twists. But it’s still a huge improvement over Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The villains are better and genuinely menacing, the action feels a lot more gritty and believable and the main characters just click together better. Phoebe Waller-Bridge was surprisingly not-annoying (and not-too-fleabag-y!) and made for a spunky counterfoil to Ford’s grumpy-but-charming ageing adventurer. Harrison Ford still radiates charisma by the bucketload with a performance that feels anything but phoned-in.
So, overall, James Mangold did a damn good job directing this. He’s no “Spielberg in the 80s” – who is? – but there’s some really well done action sequences with some fun light touches that feel at least a bit Spielberg-ian in a natural way. Oh – and John William’s score was fantastic too.
So yeah. It’s not perfect, but this is well worth a cinema visit. It’s a far more fitting epilogue for the character of Indiana Jones than KOTCS and while it doesn’t come close to the lofty heights of Raiders (which to be fair, none of the other Indiana Jones movies have) it’s a fun blockbuster filled with heart and some reasonable smarts.
