A One Mann’s Movies review of “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” (2023).
It’s the summer of 1981 and myself and the illustrious soon-to-be-Mrs Movie Man go into a little fleapit of a cinema in the middle of Inverness to watch “Raiders of the Lost Ark” – a film neither of us knew anything about but which was to promptly blow us away. Now, 42 years later, comes the bookend to Indiana Jones’s journey with “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”.
My breath was bated. Would it be a “Last Crusade” or would it be a “Crystal Skull”?
#Phew!
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
It’s New York, 1969. A retiring (though far from shy and retiring) Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is visited by his goddaughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), daughter of his old archaeologist friend Basil Shaw (Toby Jones). Shaw became obsessed with recovering two separated halves of an “ancient hunk of gears” – the Antikythera, said to have mystical powers. But the Nazi Dr Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) is also on the hunt for the same thing, and he plays rough.
Certification:
UK: 12; US: PG-13. (From the BBFC web site: “Moderate violence, threat, injury detail”.)
Talent:
Starring: Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Toby Jones, Mads Mikkelsen, John Rhys-Davis, Shaunette Renée Wilson, Ethann Isidore, Antonio Banderas, Thomas Kretschmann.
Directed by: James Mangold
Written by: Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth, David Koepp & James Mangold.
Twitter Handle: #IndianaJones.
Jones (Harrison Ford) and Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) travel to Tangiers. Even approaching his 81st birthday, he still looks pretty good! (Source: Disney).
“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” Review:
Positives:
- The film starts with a bang, going back 24 years to the end of World War 2 (a trend this year!). And these first scenes are terrific, with an effectively de-aged Ford (at least, I thought so) having a “Last Crusade”-style tussle with Nazis…. in a bell-tower, on a bike and in (and on) a train. Propping up these scenes (and stealing most of them) is Toby Jones, actually getting to do some action stuff, which he must have loved!
- Phoebe Waller-Bridge makes for a quirky heroine-cum-adversary, sparring with her godfather throughout. And Mads Mikkelsen excels as the cartoon Nazi scientist villain, oozing menace without moving his facial features one iota.
- The script is clever in explaining the bridge from the last film to this one: where was Marion (Karen Allen)? Where was the ‘monkey swinger’ (Shia LaBoeuf)? And it successfully portrays Jones as the elderly man he now is, boring his students in his lectures (rather than getting their rapt attention) and being like the grumpy Carl in “Up!” when his hippy neighbours make too much noise with “The Magical Mystery Tour”!
- There are lots of lovely easter eggs throughout, making a second watch worthwhile. Some are through audio, some are visual (e.g. items in Indy’s New York apartment) and some are musical. They refer to aspects of all four of the previous films.
- John Williams music! At 91 years old, the maestro still knows how to turn out a great soundtrack. He reuses some of his classic themes from the earlier movies, together with new themes, notably Helena’s theme. Another Oscar nomination perhaps?
- The finale is sweet and surprisingly moving. It made the illustrious Mrs Movie Man burst into tears with the nostalgia, realising (see my introduction) that this franchise has neatly bookended most of our adult lives together to this point!
Negatives:
- For me, the film really flies in that opening sequence and also when we go into the cave in Sicily to do the ‘bone-digging’ stuff. But some of the other action sequences fell a bit flat for me, notably an extended tuk-tuk chase sequence in Tangiers. This sort of thing has been done numerous times before – and better – by the likes of the Mission Impossible, Bourne and Bond folks.
- This was not a massive negative for me, but I think it might be for many. I like the concept of the ‘McGuffin’ in this… I really did. It was reminiscent of the two parts of the knight’s shield in “Last Crusade”. But when the McGuffin gets used, it’s really a WTF moment that you will either say “OK, at least its not aliens” or “Nah – don’t be so ridiculous”. I suspect most audiences will be split about this. Both myself and the illustrious Mrs Movie Man were just about in the former camp on this one. It was clever how, when they met ‘HIM’ (to scoffs, from me, of “don’t be so ridiculous”), Helena had an ingenious line in the script (the “stacked deck” line) to explain it away and allow me to go “Oh, OK then”!
- As I said above, the de-aging in the first part of the film was really good. But this was all destroyed by a TERRIBLE piece of CGI where Indy is running along the roof of the moving train. It looks like we reverted, in special effects terms, to almost the stick men and women walking about the Titanic in 1997’s film. Whichever of the numerous special effects companies that were responsible for letting this out of their shop should be ashamed. There was also one – very brief – shot of Jones on the train that I thought had a really bad back projection that made me wince… I’d have to watch it again to be sure though.
Summary Thoughts on “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”
2008’s “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” was a crushing disappointment. Although having a few good moments, its many flaws were deep and memorable, requiring years of therapy! I am therefore delighted that Jones has gone out with something that better matches the joy of the hero’s heyday. It could never be “Raiders”. And it doesn’t get close to the standard of “Last Crusade”, which is a close second for me. But I would say it is at least on a par with “Temple of Doom” (I run hot and cold on that film) and probably, on balance, better.
So my final ranking of the Indiana Jones films would be:
- Raiders of the Lost Ark (I will not be having any of that “Indiana Jones and the…” prefix bollocks! Not on my watch!)
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
- Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
So please support your local multiplex and get out and see it. It is a worthy summer blockbuster that the illustrious Mrs Movie Man has expressed an interest in seeing again…. and that’s an occurrence rarer than hen’s teeth!
By the way, I was asked by my daughter if this would be suitable for her kids (8 and 6) to watch. There IS a very high body count in the film, so it is violent in that regard. But there isn’t the sort of disturbing imagery (the Satipo spiking; the Belloq, Toht and Dietrich face-melting) that was the stuff of nightmares for young kids in “Raiders”. So, on balance, I would say yes if they are emotionally mature. (But it’s probably worth giving them a brief history lesson first!)
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Trailer for “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQfMbSe7F2g .
