Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)
1.5/4
One of the fondest memories I have of growing up is watching the Indiana Jones movies with my father and brother. I love every second of the original three movies. I even enjoyed Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and never really understood the hate. Sure, the whole “nuke the fridge” idea was kind of silly but to me it’s an entertaining action adventure movie. So, you can imagine my excitement when Lucasfilm announced that Harrison Ford was coming back for one last adventure.
Unfortunately, although this movie has its moments—mainly Ford’s performance, John Williams’ musical score and the opening train sequence—I have to say that, overall, this is one of the most disappointing movies I’ve ever sat through.
Let’s start with the good news, and, to be fair, there’s lots of it. I liked some of the action sequences. For example, I thought the aforementioned opening train sequence was fun. It had some good classic Indy action with the whip and the punching people through his hat—all of that was nicely choreographed and helmed.
Ford’s good in this movie: Dial of Destiny puts Dr. Jones in some very emotional situations, and the actor shows that even at 80 years old he’s still the same old charisma machine he was back in the ‘80s. Phoebe Waller-Bridge provides a great sidekick to Indy, even through her character is kind of a jerk, and Mads Mikkelsen delivers a very good bad guy in this movie.
It’s always a joy to hear a John Williams Indiana Jones score, and his fifth contribution to this franchise is no exception. Every action sequence is beautifully scored and Williams’ music does a near-perfect job in both playing to your nostalgia as well as drawing the audience into the action.
In addition, while director James Mangold is no Steven Spielberg, I think he did a great job with this film. Each actor’s performance is masterfully directed, as are the action sequences and the emotional beats of the story.
Now let’s get into all the things I absolutely despised. The first thing would be the depressing tone of the film, and it’s not a good sort of depressing. It seems like every character is suffering from some kind of loss and the movie painfully spells that out for the entire audience.
Another thing I didn’t like is the use of classic characters from the other movies. It’s no secret that Marion Ravenwood and Sallah are back in this film. I just don’t know why they were brought back, because neither of them get anything to do in the movie. They’re mainly just there to moan and groan about how they miss the old days when they were part of this grand adventure.
While this movie has a lot of redeeming qualities to it, its depressing tone and underuse of key franchise characters make it a rather disappointing watch that nobody will want to revisit any time soon.