Following a fifteen-year hiatus, Indiana Jones has returned to the big screen in The Dial of Destiny. This time around though instead of being directed by the original creator Steven Spielberg, James Mangold takes directorial control. The previous Indiana Jones film, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, was met with very mixed reviews as it came out 19 years after the conclusion of the trilogy. Many felt that it was a poorly done money grab profiting off of nostalgia for the previous three films. So, the question going into Dial of Destiny is: what is its justification for once again coming back after all this time, besides being another easy money grab? Upon watching, it’s hard to really see a reason for its reemergence besides to once again revel in nostalgia for the wildly successful original films. As a film based purely on nostalgia bait though, it does a decent job at giving fans of the series what they want and making the experience a relatively good time.
This addition to the series sees a much older and worn-down Indiana Jones on the verge of retirement get thrown into a conspiracy involving the Nazis to retrieve an ancient artifact. Though not a horrible plot, it doesn’t seem to hold enough gravitas to really make sense of why the film was made. It seems to be an attempt to put a nice close to the series, yet its existence doesn’t really justify opening it again in the first place. The plot is run of the mill for an Indiania Jones movie, but more was needed than that to explain its emergence after all this time. And without spoiling the whole film, it must be mentioned that James Mangold takes the plot way too far at the end, extending it into territories foreign to previous movies in the series. It just made it feel a bit removed from the previous films and like the characters were out of place with the events taking place on screen. It gave in too much to the fantastical elements of the plot whereas previous films successfully towed the line between realism and fantasy.
Dial of Destiny sees the reemergence of previous characters from the series, as well as the creation of some new ones. We see Sallah (John Rhys-Davies), and Marion (Karen Allen) back on screen. Their inclusions come as no surprise as of course with a movie riding completely off nostalgia it’s going to bring back old characters that fans love. Nothing all that special is done with the characters though except to show how they’ve aged over the years, and they disappointingly lack any real character development throughout. As for the major new characters, there’s Indiana’s goddaughter Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), her sidekick Teddy (Ethann Isidore), and villain Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen). Though none of these characters are particularly poorly written, they don’t really add all that much to the series, they play their roles successfully but not much more than that. Harrison Ford gives his typical Indiana Jones performance without adding much more to the character besides seeming a lot more tired and worn out. Ultimately, he provides at a minimum what fans would come to expect from him.
James Mangold is an accomplished director with films such as Logan and Girl, Interrupted under his belt so it comes to no surprise that it’s a competently made film. The whole thing looks fine visually and it’s able to successfully deliver intriguing action scenes. There is a flashback scene at the beginning though where Indiana appears over 30 years younger due to the use of AI technology; though a minor detail I felt that the effect looked fake some of the time to a comedic effect. If this film wasn’t riding the Indiana Jones nostalgia wave and was just a random action film, it would be entirely forgettable and not even worth a watch. Yet it does deliver with the nostalgic elements and makes a relatively fun time out of it in the process; even though the film is pretty shallow, pandering to fans they know will come out to see it regardless of its quality. It’s undeniably a pretty fun watch a lot of the time, regardless of the fact that it can’t truly justify the need for its existence within the Indiana Jones universe. If you’re a fan of the series, I’d recommend maybe checking it out as it’s not a total waste of time but for everyone else I would advise avoiding it.
2.5/5 STARS