I had a lot of trepidation going into the latest Indiana Jones movie, having been burnt by the god-awful piece of shit that was Crystal Skull. Fortunately, while Dial of Destiny might not be an equal to the movies of my childhood, it wasn’t a straight up disaster. I will say, “Dial of Destiny” is a shitty title, and they should have chosen something without such hokey alliteration. It bugs me for some reason.
Dial of Destiny finds Indiana Jones in the year 1969, closing in on retirement from teaching disinterested archeology students about the dry and dusty events of the past while the world around him revels in the shiny new age of space travel. Indy’s life is a shambles. His son died in the war (yay, no Shia LeBeouf), his marriage is on the rocks, and he’s struggling to find his place in modern society. All that changes when his god-daughter, Helena, approaches him and asks him about an ancient Greek device that Indy and her father once found, studied, and abandoned. Indy quickly finds himself embroiled in a dangerous plot with old Nazis, Moroccan gangsters, deep-sea divers, and at the center,…his shady god-daughter and the search for the ancient dial once built by Archimedes thousands of years ago. As usual, Indy will have to outwit the bad guys, travel to exotic locations in search of hidden treasures, and navigate countless dangers to save the world and protect the secrets of antiquity. Does he have one last adventure in him? Or is this the time that the bad guys finally win?
Dial of Destiny sticks to the tried and true Indiana Jones formula. You have Nazis; you have chases and fight scenes and action from start to finish; you have a true believer bad guy scientist (Mads Mikkelsen); you have Indy with a partner (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) and even a little kid doing the dirty work to find the hidden treasures while the bad guys follow right behind them; and you have a dash of the supernatural to challenge Indy’s belief in science. There’s nothing particularly new here. There are a good number of call-backs, characters, and references to the older movies (particularly Raiders), but they don’t feel overdone. There are a few scenes of a “de-aged” Harrison Ford, and they’re fine, although it’s still a noticeable VFX technique.
Instead of the craptastic aliens that we got in Crystal Skull, this movie focuses on a different supernatural/science fiction threat that feels slightly more in keeping with the Indiana Jones universe. It’s still a little cheesy, but not nearly as bad as the last movie.
The acting is all decent (even Antonio Banderas makes an appearance without being too much of a caricature), the action is pretty much non-stop, and the plot keeps moving throughout. Harrison Ford does a good job at age 80 of playing an older more broken down Indy who really is struggling with where he’s ended up in life. The movie ends on a nice note, and feels like a good send-off for this character. Here’s hoping they won’t try to drag Ford out of his recliner at age 90 to try for another.
Overall, Dial of Destiny is a decent popcorn action movie with all the hallmarks of the Indiana Jones movies, and if you’re looking for something to redeem the franchise after Crystal Skull, this might do the trick. Good family fun for 4th of July weekend.