Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Review

July 5, 2023 at 4:02pm
By Jason Stettner

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is indeed the last entry in this legendary franchise that has spanned decades. One last globe spanning adventure for the hero with his iconic hat and whip. One final chance to get things right and deliver a great ending to this stoic action hero.

With that, they do actually fail to deliver on that premise and leave the character with one last failure. While I can admit it’s been awhile since I’ve watched Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I do now feel I may need to revisit the movie as it might not have been as bad as I thought after having watched this last effort.

The original three films are classic pieces of cinema with my favorite being The Last Crusade. An ending that they should have stuck with, or continued from much sooner. There’s nothing sadder than seeing a completely broken, sad old Indiana Jones getting a random new addition to his history through a very poorly and lengthy de-aged opening.

Disappointment is a strong word for this film and while I hoped for the minimal I was still left empty and just ultimately disappointed that the legacy of the character ends with this heap of rubbish. Anyways, the story follows Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) as he’s about to retire. Time has passed him by and he’s really got nothing left.

This is when his goddaughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) enters the picture as someone interested in a special piece of history that her father went wild for. This then begins a cascading series of events where the two battle back against a long term Nazi, Dr Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) who wants to correct things to how he feels they should be long after the war has ended.

In fact, he’s actually helped launch the Americans into space and even has government ties which is an interesting setup for the start of this adventure. There’s also for some random reason a kid involved, Teddy (Ethann Isidore) that seems again just completely random. There’s a lot of this movie that doesn’t make sense so you really need to suspend your belief to just allow things to take place.

That’s really just the biggest chunk of this, wild scenarios that don’t make a whole lot of sense and you’re just along for the ride. An exhausting ride as the run time is extremely long and it feels as though there’s just endless chase scenes. You race from one place to the next without much breathing room at all. You would think that with the wisdom Indy has acquired over the years that more puzzle solving would be present, but he barely spends any time doing that sort of thing.

He’s essentially completely sidelined in favor of his goddaughter as opposed to the two being a dynamic combo as in what we saw within The Last Crusade. It just didn’t feel like an effective style of storytelling, a waste of the era and a confusing sense of meandering direction. The quality of the film also felt rather poor with CGI being almost too clear in every scene.

I was constantly feeling as though I saw this weird digital monster of an Indiana Jones bobbling about in each scene, it was unnerving. It just felt really fake visually, and didn’t come across as having the same heart that the older films had to them. Even the locations didn’t feel too effectively used as while there were cool spots they visited, these areas don’t get space to breath as I’ve mentioned and you don’t really get to take them in. The only scene you do get to take in is almost comical in concept and just too utterly ridiculous of a moment to handle.

I don’t want to spoil anything but this late moment part of the film, with the series of events that take place during it just felt too stupid for me. When it does come to performances I will certainly say that Ford put in a really somber, solid showcase for a character he clearly cares about. I wish there was that level of depth of gravity from those around him, but apparently being around this character isn’t a healthy thing according to this movie.

The Conclusion

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is a truly disappointing conclusion to one of film’s most iconic characters, feeling bloated and largely empty. If you’re a fan of this character I feel you’re likely to at most just feel almost entirely indifferent to this movie, that is of course if you don’t dislike it as I do.

That’s just not the sort of quality experience that should be coming from a character that brought such thrilling, and dynamic adventures over the years. The movie lacks the heart, style and excitement that the original movies had provided. I know age hasn’t been kind to this old adventurer, but they didn’t lean into that in trying to use his wisdom in different ways. It felt like I was watching someone way too old for what was happening struggle to keep up despite there being constant chase sequences that also felt silly.

The kid felt nonsensical and a lot of plot was completely barebones, feeling overly long with generally poor pacing that caused moments of boredom. It was just a really bizarre movie, particularly since I had looked forward to it for so long. Perhaps some franchises are better left as they once were, as this feels like a bit of a stain on the legacy of a group of movies I truly do care about.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Review at Theater with AVX Viewing

Rating Overall: 4.0