Dial of Destiny Review: Indiana Jones Stuck in the Past

This review by Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny comes from the premiere of the film at the Cannes Film Festival. Expect more about the film as we get closer to the film’s theatrical release in June.

Like Luke Skywalker or Citizen KaneAlong with Charles Foster Kane, Indiana Jones is one of those characters that feels almost synonymous with the film itself. Steven Spielberg’s film series, about an archeology professor who also plays a swashbuckling hero, is so cinematic through and through that you can watch Indiana Jones leap off a giant rolling boulder Hunter of the lost treasure is a rite of passage in childhood.

The same does not apply to the notorious Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the 2008 sequel that killed the franchise. (And the fridge.) So it’s no surprise that the new Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is an attempt at a course correction. Director James Mangold has entrusted Spielberg to direct the franchise for a back-to-basics adventure that criss-crosses continents in the race against the Nazis.

In 1969, Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is well past the treasure hunt days. Much like Ford’s media personality, Indy is grumpy and hard-nosed, the moody old neighbor to stay away from. It quickly becomes clear that he is bitter, maybe even depressed, because on his counter are the divorce papers sent to him by longtime love Marion (Karen Allen). On the day he retires from teaching at the university, he is approached by Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), his goddaughter and his friend Basil’s (Toby Jones) child from the good old days of World War II . She is on a quest to find the Antikythera, the long-lost Archimedes artifact that made her father a little delusional and is said to lead its user to “rifts in time”. In other words, the ability to travel through time.

Also on the hunt for Antikythera is a group of remaining Nazis – led by scientist Jürgen Voller, played by emo-haircut Mads Mikkelsen – who need the device for nefarious Nazi purposes in order to rewrite the war. Indy has to dust off his famous hat, maybe for the last time.

Fate dial is packed with intense action sequences, from a fistfight on a moving train to a frantic horseback race through New York’s subway tunnels. A tuk-tuk chase through Tangier’s winding streets is just as exciting, especially when Helena and Indiana jump from vehicle to vehicle and bicker. But the more explosive the sequences become and the larger the scale, the more unreal the visual effects become. The pinnacle of dogfighting is digital sludge, offering nothing that’s visually enticing.

Mangold is a very good director, able to stage solid crowd pleasers (Ford versus Ferrari, Walk down the line) and even breathes new life into the dying X-Men franchise logan. But Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny looks anonymous. Its visual style is monotonous in a way that robs the film of any personality. As Indiana Jones makes his way through booby-trapped caves by torchlight Hunter of the lost treasureThe contrast between the outside world and this spooky tomb evokes a unique wonder. But virtually every after-dark scene here is dimly lit and difficult to see. And like so many modern blockbusters, Fate dial is based on fast cuts that pick up the pace of Indiana’s confrontations with the Nazis, but the choreography is barely recognizable.

Judging by Harrison Ford, by the way gushed at the Cannes premiere When it comes to Indiana Jones, this is one of the characters he cherishes the most, and he does his best in what is supposedly the final performance of this character. Indiana Jones handles high-speed set pieces with the understandably sluggish awkwardness of an older man, while still being able to pack a mean punch. (At one point he complains about his “crumbling vertebrae.”) But Ford also delivers pathos in the film’s quieter scenes, where his stoic demeanor eases into tender moments of contemplation.

How Spider-Man: No Way Home This is another legacy sequel that reunites previous Spider-Men to evoke nostalgic clout. She sacrifices story in favor of frequent cameo appearances, severely undermining the goodwill of the franchise. Mangold (who co-wrote the screenplay with Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth and David Koepp) intersperses awkwardly nodding references to Indy’s past adventures: an encounter with deep-sea eels leads to a tongue-in-cheek joke about how they look like snakes, and the futility of his whip against shots is a reminder of this The Fight out of Hunter of the lost treasure.

And just when it seems like Mangold might decide to make a bold move at the end of the story, the film turns to a sugary goodbye that once again aims at fan service and recognition, stripping Indiana Jones of any agency for one last cameo appearance. This decision reflects what older sequels largely portray: it closes a story not in a way that does justice to its characters, but in a way that appeases the broadest audience wanting to remember something that happened in the past loved.

For a film that tries to fix the bad ending crystal skull left behind as the previous series winner, Fate dial is surprisingly boring. It’s a disappointing copy of the much better Indiana Jones films that preceded it. It’s all competently put together, with enough entertaining sequences to keep the audience hooked throughout the long running time of two and a half hours. But it plays the game so confidently that there are few memorable moments. Ultimately, the film is just a painful reminder of how good we used to be.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny debuts in American cinemas on June 30th.