The existence of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is quite bizarre when you think about it. Not just because this joins alongside 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife in the genre of “movies made to apologize for a bad modern sequel”, but that you still have Harrison Ford putting on the fedora once again as he is pushing his 80s. Even if that basically defeats the whole wish fulfillment mindset of Indiana Jones in his prime (something which Dial of Destiny greatly excels at), that has to be quite commendable because it’s so unlike anything among actors in Hollywood. Like when is the last time you’ve seen someone in their 80s that is still continuing to do action roles? I guess you’ll just have to get back to me in 2043 when Tom Cruise is about to do Mission Impossible 17! It’s just a shame that this movie doesn’t do anything good enough to justify having Ford come back for what will likely be his last time as Indy himself!
To put out all of my cards on the table, Dial of Destiny is the weakest of all the Indiana Jones movies by a country mile. It lacks the energy and passion that Spielberg provided with the previous four movies (Yes, even Kingdom of the Crystal Skull!), it doesn’t justify any of the baffling decisions that it makes for the Indiana Jones character, and the whole thing just has a “going through the motions” feel to it that I imagine the people behind this movie were just as bored making it as I was watching it. It might succeed in the sense of making a more bleak and depressing Indiana Jones movie for those that actually want that along with good final contributions from it’s cast and John Williams respectively, but as a whole, Dial of Destiny is underwhelming and quite frankly forgettable.
Plot Synopsis: We start off in 1944, where Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) teams up with an Oxford archeologist named Basil Shaw (Toby Jones) to retrieve a legendary dial from the Nazi lead by Jurgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) that can change the course of history. This is know as the Archimedes’ Dial, which has the power to allow possible time travel. The pair are able to obtain a dial piece and escapes the Germany army before they are able to get the full artifact entirely.
We then fast forward to 1969, 12 years after the events of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, we see Indy in a worse place than he has every been in. He is on the verge of divorce with his wife, Marion (Karen Allen) after their son, Mutt was killed in the Vietnam War. As he is about to retire as a college professor from Hunter College, Indiana is visited by his goddaughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), who just got her degree in archeology and has interest in researching the Archimedes’ dial herself. Despite warnings from Indy that the dial drove her father so insane to the point that he wanted Indy to destroy it (which he didn’t for some reason), Helena is persistent and wants the dial for herself for her own personal gains and needs.
Circumstances become even more complicated when Indy and Helena are pursued by the Nazi to retrieve the full dial, as Voller has his own plans of going back in time to correct Hitler’s mistakes and make it to wear Germany is victorious in World War II. The chase is on as Indy must put on the hat and fedora once last time before the Nazi are able to accomplish their goals and change the course of history forever.
It’s no secret that this is the first Indiana Jones film to not be helmed by Steven Spielberg. This time around it’s been handled by no other than James Mangold, a director who has had a recent run of success with films such as Logan and Ford v Ferrari. On paper, Mangold does seem like the best possible replacement for Spielberg as he has proven to make films as crowd pleasers and intriguing character-driven pieces. Unfortunately, the results of Dial of Destiny doesn’t do him any favors whatsoever. Whether it’s 100% because of Mangold or interference with the studio, this new Indiana Jones film is clearly missing the spark of the first four Indy flicks and the very best in Mangold’s filmography. If Lucasfilm was hoping that Mangold would at least do a good job of acting as a poor man’s version of Spielberg, then they really seem to miss the mark.
There’s a lot that has been said with the way Dial of Destiny decides to portray Indiana Jones as a figure that is more dour and depressed than ever before. While Mangold was able to showcase that incredibly well with Wolverine in Logan, he misses the mark entirely with Indiana Jones. Taking away the fact that the main reason that the bleak portrayal worked so well in Logan was because Wolverine is at his heart a tragic character, it doesn’t really benefit Indy at all throughout the course of the film. Aside from one entertaining scene towards the beginning where grandpa Indy has his “get off my lawn” moment and one great monologue he has in the middle of the second act, this depressed version of Indiana Jones feels more like a footnote than anything else.
There’s no attempt at exploring this darker side of Indy other than an occasional reference to bad things that happened in his past or since Crystal Skull and some back-and-forth banter between Ford and Bridge. The decisions that’s made with characters such as having Indy and Marion being split (again) and killing off Mutt don’t really matter as much to the narrative as the film thinks it does. If you basically had it to where Indy and Marion are just taking “time off” (think the way Tony and Pepper took “time off” between Civil War and Homecoming) and Mutt is just living his own life with a slight grudge against his father, the film would basically play out the exact same way. All you really had to do was rewrite that one scene of Indy giving that emotional monologue to Helena (which Ford is so good in that one scene that it almost makes up for everything) and you would basically have the same film.
And speaking of the same film, despite claims that this film would correct the problems with Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, when you get right down to it, Dial of Destiny is really not that much different than Crystal Skull. Once again, we have an Indy that’s older, bitter, has lost everything and is forced to come to terms with his own age and morality. He also happens to have a relative that’s close to him and forces him on one last possible adventure. An adventure where Indy learns that even as an elder and past his prime, he can still gain new things such as new friends, family, knowledge, and a new purpose. Although whereas Crystal Skull, albeit flawed, was able to tell that story while having Indy finding a new sense of happiness that he never knew he wanted, Dial of Destiny rips that away from him entirely, only for him to learn the exact same lesson all over again towards the tail end of the film.
Another big addition to the film is that of Indy’s granddaughter herself, Helena, played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge. While there’s an interesting idea towards her character acting as a mirror to Indy in Temple of Doom, in it all for the fortune and glory instead of knowledge, it comes across as rather half baked as the film basically doesn’t really know what to do with her. Her motives comes off as very vague as it’s unclear if she’s doing all of this for personal gain or to stick it to her angry fiancé (which the film mentions once or twice but is then handwaved) or her new kid sidekick (who is certainly no Ke Huy Quan) or something else entirely. Phoebe Waller-Bridge does what she can and helps provides charm and energy in a film that severely lacks any of that but the character of Helena feels like an idea that is barely explored.
And that is basically Dial of Destiny in a nutshell, ideas that sound good on paper but never explored. There are subplots that are set up but go nowhere like Indy being on the run from the government, side characters that feel pointless such as Short Round 2.0 and whoever Antonio Banderas is playing, action scenes, save for the prologue, that aren’t memorable, a lengthy runtime that feels unwarranted, and an ending, while bittersweet, is about as clean cut as once could imagine in the most contrived way possible. There’s just too much of a going-through-the-motions feel to the whole picture that it only feels like it exists because Disney now owns the rights to Indiana Jones and they had to release something with it eventually. Even by the time we get to it’s bonkers third act (which likely had George Lucas smirking throughout), it still feels like business as usual with the film pulling back it’s punches.
If there’s a main saving grace to the picture is that the cast has equipped themselves admirably, even with the bare minimum material they are given to work with. Harrison Ford is still great as Indiana Jones as he always has been, selling this bitter version of Indy so well that it almost justifies the decision made. Phoebe Waller-Bridge is hugely charismatic and seems to be having the most fun out of anyone in the film, even if I don’t buy her whatsoever taking the mantle in the future. Mads Mikkelsen is always a blast to watch as the main bad guy, even if I won’t remember what his character’s name is by next Monday. John Rhys-Davies is underutilized as Sallah but still as charming as ever. Everyone else is fine but play such little of a role that they honestly aren’t worth mentioning by name.
In terms of other positives, John Williams brings his A game once again, putting together a score that feels appropriately Indiana Jones, making one realize how much the world will miss him once the inevitable happens to him. The prologue, despite too much of de-aging Harrison Ford that’s not buyable whatsoever, is fun stuff and contains the classic Indiana Jones magic that the rest of the film lacks. And in spite of the film’s abrupt way of wrapping up, it does end on a nice callback to the original Raiders film that will certainly get one in the feels.
Perhaps I’m being too harsh on this film since I have a big fondness for the original trilogy and even have a soft spot for Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in spite of it’s flaws, but Dial of Destiny is just yet another in a sea of franchise installments that have come out throughout the summer of 2023 that seems to exists for the sake of existing. It’s not that it’s an exceptionally terrible film but it’s one that just left no impact on me whatsoever. I expect this film to go down the way of the last few Home Alone sequels, just buried and forgotten about with only a few mentions from folks in the future to go like “Oh, yeah! That movie did exist!” And considering this whole franchise is about a character that would love nothing more than to go down in history, that’s about the worst crime you could possibly commit.
For those who were not fond of Crystal Skull and perhaps want a more “mature” take on the Indiana Jones character, you might get some enjoyment in this. For everyone else, you will likely find this as tiring as Indy himself does throughout the entire movie. In that case, at least Dial of Destiny is truthful to itself, even if it’s in the worse ways.
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