At the heart of it all, Indiana Jones is a cinematic character to whom I have a deep affection for. I have a strong propriety interest in this type of franchise. Hell, I still remember how excited I was to see The Chronicles of Young Indiana Jones in the early ’90s (Now available on Disney+). But sadly, I never got the chance to see any of the first 3 Indiana Jones movies at the theater, but I watched the fuck out of them on home video (VHS). Plus, back in the early 2000s, I bought the original trilogy box set on DVD. It was the same thing with Kingdom of the Crystal Skull; I missed its initial theatrical release, and I don’t remember why — Well, I was partying heavily between 2003 and 2010, so all those years are a blur.
Having said that, I had to ensure I saw this 5th entry at the movie theater with a big-ass bucket of popcorn. It is like having a generational badge of honor to say you have experienced culturally impacting films at the movie theater. There are some Films I fondly remember seeing at the theater, like the first Matrix, all the Star Wars Prequels and sequels — as well as other movies that I got to see in the theater as a kid between the late 80s/90s like Terminator 2, Robocop, Tim Burton’s Batman, Pulp Fiction and others.
Here is the thing: Raiders of the Lost Ark is everything a classic popcorn film should be, and it still holds up as a fun flick to watch. The second entry, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, is a solid sequel, although the story takes place before Raiders, so it is more like a prequel than a sequel. And then the third entry, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, is excellent, and it is probably my favorite of the entire series. But the fourth entry, Indiana Jones and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, was somewhat disappointing, and the fans and critics maligned it. But I recently revisited Indiana Jones 4, and it is not as bad as I thought the first time I saw it — there are plenty of good moments throughout the movie and some bad ones. Particularly the part where Indy arrives in Peru; instead of hearing Andean music in the background, we get to hear Mexican Mariachi-sounding music — and then, by the final act, everything begins to fall apart.
In any case, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is supposed to be the 5th and final entry into the Indy Jones series. And it is the first Indy Jones not directed by Steven Spielberg — James Mangold takes over as director. So, with a new director at the helm and considering the bad reviews from the 4th movie, I was expecting this 5th entry to be a massive improvement over the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. And in a way, it was a bit better.
The opening sequence is a traditional Indiana Jones opening sequence, where Indy is fighting Nazis at the end of WWII — De-aging technology is on full display here, and it actually looks pretty good; it looks like Harrison Ford from the 80s, but his voice still sounded like the grumpy old man we all know today. Then, the story quickly moves to 1969 New York City, where Indy is now in his late 60s or early 70s, working at some small college and living alone in a small apartment. It was an excellent idea to set the story in 1969 during the time of the moon landing. It showed how the world around Indy was changing, and he seemed like a relic of the past. Most of his loved ones, like Marcus Brody, Henry Jones Sr, and his son, are now gone. Plus, his wife Marion has left him. It was a smart choice to kill off Shia Lebeauf’s character, adding to Indy’s life tragedy.
All the de-aging stuff was done well, and seeing Indy living in NYC in his 70s was cool. All of the action scenes as older Indy were also well done; those scenes reflected the reality of an aging person, and in this case, the reality of an aging hero. Bringing back Sallah (John Rhys-Davies) was great. Sallah’s character arc from the last time we saw him on-screen was well-written; he now lives in the US with his family and seems happy.
The new character Basil Shaw (Toby Jones) was interesting, but I feel like he wasn’t necessary. Maybe, instead of Basil Shaw, they could’ve brought back Dean Charlie Stanforth (Jim Broadbent) from Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and de-age him a bit. Anyhow, Basil Shaw’s daughter, Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), was fun to watch. She is Indy’s Goddaughter — Helena is modeled after those classic old-school Hollywood femme fatales. She is all about greed while dealing in ancient artifacts on the black market. She lies, cheats, and manipulates her way through most of the movie. But her character needed more time to develop. She could’ve been Marcus Brody’s or even Charlie Stanforth’s daughter instead of Basil Shaw’s.
Helena’s sidekick and partner in crime, Terry (Ethan Isidore), was an essential character in humanizing Helena as a person; it showed that she legitimately cared for Terry and his well-being. As far as I can tell, Terry seemed like a stand-in for Short Round (Key Hu Quan), but a bad one at that. This movie needed the real Short Round to show up as an adult. Narratively, it would have fitted perfectly to have Short Round back, and Indy pass the torch to him. Especially considering the career resurgence Key Hu Quan is currently enjoying.
All villains seemed poorly conceived except for Jurgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen). Mikkelson is always creepy as a villain and delivers top-notch creepiness here again. The concept of Jurgen Voller working with the US government as a direct product of Operation Paperclip was brilliant. His devious plan to use the Dial of Destiny to go back in time and kill Hitler to change WWII’s trajectory was logical. Nevertheless, the rest of the baddies were lacking substance. It was unclear what Klaber (Boyd Holbrook) was doing here and his real intentions as a character. Klaber’s background and ideology were never really established. The same thing happened to the other villain, Hauke (Olivier Richters); he is just another heavy with no backstory. Although it was cool seeing Thommas Krestchman playing a Nazi again, Krestchman has made a career playing Nazis in films like The Pianist, Downfall, and Valkyrie.
Another poorly conceived character was Renaldo (Antonio Banderas); he was supposed to go way back with Indy and have this long history together. Instead, Renaldo is on-screen for a handful of minutes and then gone. Meanwhile, his backstory remained uncleared. Nonetheless, for the brief time, Banderas was on-screen, he was terrific playing this tough, grizzled, sea-faring frogman. Additionally, it was weird how the US government’s involvement was depicted in the storyline. Most significantly, the character of CIA Agent Mason (Shaunette Renee Wilson); she was in and out of the storyline, and it felt like a waste of a potentially significant character.
On top of all that, my biggest issue with this story was The Dial of Destiny itself — What I mean is that of all the ancient archeological mysteries out there, the Dial of Destiny was a weird choice for a subject. It is supposed to be a Greek device used for astronomical calculations, also known as an Antikythera Mechanism, and believed to have been primarily used as a navigation tool. But for some strange reason, the creative team behind this movie decided to turn this device into a time machine. Thus establishing this insane premise that this device can find a rift in time, like a wormhole, and this wormhole becomes a time travel portal. It was a nutty premise, almost as nutty as the Extraterrestrial premise behind Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Anyway, they missed a massive opportunity if the idea was to go with a time travel storyline. For a brief moment, Indy had a chance to stay in the past and actually live in ancient times and experience history. The concept of Indiana Jones, an archeologist going on adventures across time, would’ve been exceptional.
As for me personally, I would’ve loved to have seen more callbacks to the legacy Indiana Jones movies. Particularly seeing flashbacks between Professor Ravenwood and Indy. It is important to remember that Professor Ravenwood was Indy’s mentor before they had a falling out. We have no idea what their relationship was like and the reason for their fallout (probably over Marion). At the same time, I wanted to see Marion more involved in the storyline. It would have been incredible fan service to see Marion go on another adventure with Indy and have Short Round join them on the adventure.
Overall, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is an entertaining action-adventure movie. Harrison Ford’s leading actor charisma still shines through here — It is gratifying to see Ford at 80 years old leading another Summer blockbuster flick. And despite its preposterous final act and weak character building, this 5th Indiana Jones movie delivers a rewarding movie-watching experience. It is a nostalgia-driven movie about the passing of time, regret, and grief. Oddly enough, this is supposed to be the final entry into the Indiana Jones series, but it doesn’t really feel like the end of the series to me. Still, there are plenty of ways to move this series forward.
THREE OUT OF FIVE POPCORN BAGS 🍿🍿🍿
Rod Rioja 