Mild spoilers follow.. you’ve been warned.
TLDR: I liked it, I’ll of course preorder it as soon as I can and I’ll probably see it in Theater one more time. It isn’t perfect, though and as they say: I have notes.
Just to level-set and address the most common comparison: I hated Kingdom of the Crystal Skull; until I didn’t. In recent re-watches Crystal Skull actually changed my mind about that film. I rather enjoy it, now. Crusade and Raiders battle for my number 1 ranking and the rest vary by mood, including this new installment, I suspect.
Driving home from seeing Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny, I had a smile on my face. That is: right up until we found the Wallace Tunnel on I-10 in Mobile, Alabama was closed forcing a detour through downtown Mobile. In my opinion the downtown Mobile street layouts are more “gardened” than “engineered.” They just sort of happened over time, less as a result of planning and more out of a protracted timeline of necessity, repair and expansion.
This, I think might be an apt metaphor for about my first impressions of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
Mobile isn’t my favorite place to visit. In many ways it is like its sister city, New Orleans. Parking is a pain, traffic is a consistent problem. There are million dollar homes with historical marker plates within a block of derelict shanty flop-houses. On any given night you have equal odds of an adventurous good time with colorful characters or becoming a crime statistic. In fact, you could almost imagine finding Indy in a back alley brawl or Delta River boat chase over information leading to some ancient relic from early Spanish occupation..
Right before we came onto the tunnel, still smiling, I told my wife:
“You know, that might be my least favorite Indiana Jones movie.”
I need to see it again to settle on a final ranking but just because Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny isn’t my favorite Indy movie doesn’t make it a bad film or even a bad final outing for Indy. From my top 5 flavors of Ice Cream, even the fifth ranked Ice Cream can hit the spot on a hot summer day. So did this last outing with Harrison Ford once again donning the fedora and whip in search of fortune and glory (or perhaps just closure and reconciliation).
As an Indy fan I’m inclined to defend this movie from the click-bait troll reviews that apparently make a living throwing shade at Lucasfilm and Disney leadership and made their collective minds up about this film a year ago before it was even in the can. By contrast, I write here from my phone in meeting-boredom and in organization of my own thoughts and could care less if another human ever reads it. These people don’t need me to defend their choices, so I’m honest and my opinions are my own.
I like the Archimedes prop (alot, obviously) and the fetch-quest was cool. I even like Archimedes as a historical truth-finder similar in some ways to Indy. The Leads were fine. Indy was: Old-Ass ropey-but-strong and still-very laconic and wry Indy. Helena was a perfectly fine roguish co star, maybe a little hyperactive but a fine reflection of modern audiences in contrast to Indy’s pre-adderall generation.
Mild Spoilers
Ford is always great as Indy, even at this age. I suspect this is more that Indy is a facet of Harrison Ford’s personality than a character he’s actually playing. The horseback scene shown in the trailers is thrilling and the de-aged Indy sequence at the beginning is great. The de-aging tech still isn’t perfect but it also isn’t distracting, though don’t look too closely at the eyes. Eyes are still hard: being the window to the soul and all.
Mads Mikkelsen was great, liked seeing Antonio Banderas too.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge and not-Short-Round were fine ensemble cast members.
Though, I don’t think the film does a great job of making either character like-able. Early in the film Helena leaves old-man Indy in a way that earlier films would have rewarded with an insta-Karma booby-trap to the face. For the Teddy defenders out there: How would you feel if Short-Round killed people? Teddy murders a fool. Dude was a nazi and had it coming but still!? The modern story aesthetic Vis-à-vis the quality of human life doesn’t really map well here, in my opinion. I want my kid side-kicks to be edgy lovable scoundrels but Teddy? This makes Teddy too hardcore as a sidekick in my view. I’m just sayin’ that if Teddy’s hanging around my NYC apartment, I’m not leaving him alone with the pets.
FWIW: My daughter really liked Helena’s character and style, so this might just be curmudgeonly 44 year old values talking.
If I’m honest most of the things that make this a good film and not a great film probably happened in the editing bay or might be the result of a last-minute restructure to the original script despite conflicting rumors on the subject. There are some odd ADR lines where a character is talking but apparently via ventriloquist skills because their mouth isn’t moving. The story structure is a little muddied too in that Archimedes’ Dial comes in three parts and you’d expect those parts to map cleanly over a three-act story structure. Instead, the final part - the little compass-like-whatcha-ma-call-it in the center of the dial just sort of “happens” without detailed explanation or much in the way of fanfare.
Mangold and the DP borrowed enough of the Indy style in terms of color palette and set-design and John Williams score does plenty to make this feel like a real Indiana Jones movie but some of the classic Spielberg hip-shots, shadows and framing are missing. ( Level-set, again: I’m not a Spielberg-only Stan - I hate what he did to Ready Player One) Some of the shadows and silhouettes are there but they aren’t allowed to breath. The camera pans and transitions also fail to evoke the old-timey Republic serials that are hallmarks of the franchise. There is a travel sequence. It was updated and probably shouldn’t have been.
Mostly, the pacing is a little odd. The middle of the movie had my eyes wandering from the screen. I feel like the transition through the third act resolution to the finale was rushed and left me a bit disoriented. It wasn’t a fatal flaw but I think in time this transition from the third act pinnacle to the finale will be divisive, maybe even an object lesson. The “Nuke the fridge” of story transitions.
Ultimately I like where they left it, the final scene was touching and nostalgic and worked for the characters.. and I’m happy to get one more outing from Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones. Go see the movie.