Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)

​"Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" stars Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Antonio Banderas, John Rhys-Davies, Shaunette Renée Wilson, Thomas Kretschmann, Toby Jones, and Boyd Holbrook. Released on June 30, 2023, the film has Indiana Jones battling the Nazis while searching for a mysterious dial.

The film is directed by James Mangold, who also directed films such as "Cop Land", "Kate & Leopold", "Knight and Day", "Logan", and "Ford v Ferrari". It is the fifth and final installment in the "Indiana Jones" film series. The partnership between Disney and Lucasfilm led to the revival of the "Star Wars" brand via its heavily-divisive sequel trilogy and the Disney+ shows, including "The Mandalorian". With the success of the recent installments in the iconic space franchise (and "Willow"), it was only a matter of time before Disney would bring Lucasfilm's other popular franchise out of retirement for one last adventure. To no one's surprise, that moment happens to be now. It's no secret that "Raiders of the Lost Ark" is one of the greatest films ever made, emphasizing the popularity of Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford and giving birth to one of cinema's most beloved fictional heroes. Its success spawned a franchise consisting of a prequel series from the 90s, video games, books, attractions, and sequels that fell short of the original despite their pros outweighing the cons. Sadly, the same can't be said for 2008's "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", a historical moment everyone would love to forget. Fifteen years later, Disney and Lucasfilm are looking to right that wrong by giving one of Harrison Ford's iconic roles the proper farewell he deserves, but with James Mangold directing the adventure instead of Spielberg. With that said, let's see if this latest adventure can deliver one last hurrah for the archaeologist.

The story takes place in 1969. Indiana Jones (Ford), an archaeologist and adventurer, is on the verge of retirement. With his recent separation from his wife, Marion Ravenwood, Jones believes his adventure days are over. That is until he's brought back into action thanks to the arrival of Helena Shaw (Waller-Bridge). Helena is a treasure hunter who's also Jones's godchild and the daughter of his late colleague, Basil Shaw (Jones). She also seeks a mystical artifact, Archimedes' Dial, which can locate fissures in time. Following a brief struggle that resulted in Helena stealing the dial's first half, Jones embarks on one final adventure to retrieve it. However, he must also stay one step ahead of Jürgen Voller (Mikkelsen), a former Nazi agent turned NASA scientist seeking the dial to "fix Hitler's mistakes".

Indiana Jones has been one of the pinnacles of adventure cinema since the first film in 1981. From Ford's charismatic performance as the title character to the thrilling mixture of action and fantasy, the original trilogy remains one of the sublime nostalgic inspirations that deliver crowd-pleasing excitement, cinematic quality, and nightmare-inducing imagery. As for "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", that film has its moments, but not enough to be placed in a museum next to Indy's first three treasures. It took me a while to get into this franchise following my exposure to it through the LEGO Indiana Jones game and seeing "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" in theaters. Once I did, I immediately fell in love with the franchise as I have with "Star Wars", another Lucasfilm property owned by Disney. So there's no doubt I was excited to see "Dial of Destiny" despite the director change. Lucky for us, this change was a good thing, as James Mangold had delivered some great work recently, especially "Logan" and "Ford v Ferrari". But is it enough to help bring this legend to a satisfying conclusion?

"Dial of Destiny" is the final chapter of Jones' overall journey that began in "Raiders of the Lost Ark". It involves him at his lowest point where the world changes around him as he approaches retirement. Jones is used to the idealism of his past adventures that he grows distrustful of the period he's in now, especially since his enemies, the Nazis, are working with NASA. So, in a way, it somehow resembles how we view time revolving around us as we grow older. But, more importantly, it's also about appreciating the time we have, even when things go south. For a movie about an archeologist killing Nazis, it's a pretty deep background that differentiates this film from its predecessors.

But, of course, amid its deep themes, it retained the Indy adventure vibe that the previous installments were known for. You have the globe-trotting escapades, the classic good-vs-evil formula, and a third act that transcends beyond science. Everything you'd expect from an Indiana Jones movie is accounted for in "Dial of Destiny", a fast-paced and consistently thrilling adventure that hearkens back to the trilogy's golden days. As a regular Indiana Jones adventure, it's good old-fashioned popcorn entertainment packed with action and several laughs. However, as the swan song for Ford's iconic character, it's a mildly underwhelming finale that lacked the emotional punch that James Mangold delivered in "Logan".

Part of that is due to its story. As I mentioned earlier, the plot in "Dial of Destiny" is a basic Indiana Jones adventure involving the main character racing the Nazis to find an ancient artifact with mystic powers. It's a formula that has worked in the first, third, and fourth installments due to its charm, action set pieces, and engaging characters, and the same can be said for this film. It also has some poignant moments involving the characters that would've made "Dial of Destiny" special, including Jones's personal issues and the film's heartfelt ending. However, they were sadly overshadowed by its formula, some unresolved plot points, and hit-and-miss screenplay. Now, I wouldn't call it bad since it accomplished its goal of providing nostalgic entertainment for Indy fans. But for those expecting it to be a swan-song masterpiece like "Logan", this treasure lacks a lot of gold hidden underneath its core.

There's also its third act, which beat out "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" as the most bizarre sequence I've seen in the franchise. Whether that's good or not would be up to the viewer. Personally, it's not as dumb as the "nuking the fridge" scene in "Crystal Skull", given the context of Archimedes's Dial. However, it's also one of those scenes that made me go, "What the heck?" in a confounding way. Another issue I had was its runtime. The previous Indiana Jones movies were two-hour-long movies that breezed by in a flash. "Dial of Destiny" expands that length by thirty minutes, making it the longest film in the franchise. While the pacing was as quick as Indy's whip like the previous installments, the film is another case of lengthy action blockbuster madness that almost overstayed its welcome.

Aside from those issues, "Dial of Destiny" retains almost all of the elements that made the previous installments fun and endearing. One of them is the cast, including Harrison Ford, who returns for one last round as Indiana Jones. At 80 years old, Ford still finds a way to make us care for this character regarding his delightful performance. He still has the gruff nature we've seen in "Crystal Skull", but Ford also carries the wholesomeness and vulnerability of the hero regarding his personal issues. It reminds us why we love Indiana Jones as much as Harrison Ford does. He's a cinematic hero, but he's also human like us. Phoebe Waller-Bridge was also decent in her role as Helena, the cunning but selfish goddaughter of Indy. Mads Mikkelsen is a delightful and easily rooted-against villain in the form of Voller, and John Rhys-Davis was as charming as ever as Sallah despite his short screen time. Ethann Isidore was also fine as Teddy Kumar, Helena's sidekick, but he couldn't hold a candle to what Short Round delivered in "Temple of Doom".

Another element I liked was James Mangold's direction. Despite my disappointment in not seeing Steven Spielberg return to direct "Dial of Destiny", I didn't mind James Mangold taking over. After seeing two back-to-back masterpieces from him, I was confident that he'd make Spielberg (who served as an executive producer) proud with his take on the lore. Following my experience with the movie, I have to say that I wasn't disappointed. Mangold managed to capture Spielberg's nostalgic style of its craft through his vision. Not only that, but he also provided action scenes that were decently shot and entertaining, with the prologue and the Tangier chase being my favorites. The remaining action scenes may not have captured the intensity and frights of its predecessors, but the highlights I mentioned are classic Indy at their finest.

As for the CGI effects, they're decent in displaying its production designs, which looked a tad better than the effects in "Crystal Skull". The same can be said for the digitally de-aged Jones in the prologue, which looked almost exactly how he was in the first three movies. The effects may be part of the reason its budget was as high as "The Flash" and "Fast X", but on a positive note, it didn't use any CGI gophers or monkeys this time. Finally, we have John Williams's score. What more can I say about it that hasn't been said in the previous movies? It's iconic, soothing, and undoubtedly magnificent. No one can conduct this undeniable piece of music better than Mr. Williams himself.

Overall, "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" offers the usual cinematic treasure we expect from its previous installments, even though its swan song elements aren't as valuable as its historical artifacts. It doesn't match the original trilogy and Mangold's last two films regarding its hit-and-miss plot points and beefy length. Fortunately, it's breezy and fun enough to punch through its flaws and deliver a decent farewell to the iconic archeologist. Harrison Ford is once again terrific as the titular character, Mangold's direction is solid regarding the action scenes and style, and John Williams's score is unsurprisingly fantastic. It's no "Logan", but Indy's final adventure is a serviceable blockbuster that'll easily please the franchise's fans with its nostalgic riches.  

B-