Indiana Jones: Dial of Destiny

Early reviews of the latest Indiana Jones movie, The Dial of Destiny, called the movie mediocre. Reviewers were convinced that this movie was just “okay”, well big reviewers have almost never been correct and it doesn’t stop here. Dial of Destiny was a proper Indiana Jones movie, there were a few basic movie flaws but nothing that truly drops its rating.

The movie opens in the 1940s, not too long after The Last Crusade, with a de-aged Harrison Ford. Though you could tell when he talked he was still old man Harisson Ford. The AI used to de-age him was fine, it shifted in a few spots but if they had tried to cast anyone else as a grown ass Harrison Ford fans would have been pissed. De-aging him was the correct move and I don’t care what anyone else says about it.

Old man Indy is lonely as his wife left him after the death of their son. I love very much that we chose to proceed like Crystal Skull simply doesn’t exist. Also the correct decision. He’s lonely until we get the entrance of Helena, his goddaughter. Now Phoebe Waller-Bridges was absolutely brilliant in this movie. The way they wrote the film, she was able to undergo a lot of growth and character development making her central to the story while the film still very much being about Indiana Jones.

The relationship between Helena and Indy was a great back and forth. She was an archeologist for money and he is an archeologist for history, returning stolen artifacts to museums so he can share that history with the rest of the world. These conflicting ideologies drive the majority of the plot forward and lead to most of the character growth. As they spend more time together and go through more and more dangerous situations Helena and Indy grow closer. He clearly starts to feel guilty about leaving her, she starts to bond with this old man who she needed as a father figure when she was younger.

We also have Teddy, who was mostly a plot device but in all fairness so was Short Round and we love that little guy. It's very clear that they were trying to do a next generation sort of thing with Helena and Teddy, arguably leaving the door open for a spin off show or movies.

As far as the story goes, I will always pay to watch Indiana Jones beat the shit out of some Nazi’s. The Dial in question is something that detects fissures in time, arguably one of the most out there Indiana Jones premises, but the way they wrote it was also very good. It was very clear that Nazi’s are bad and you can’t go back and change the past for your own means, overall a good message. Toward the end of the film we have our characters back in time with Indy wanting to stay with Archimedes but Helena needs her father figure and she forces him back to his time. And then we got a happy ending for Indy, which is exactly what Harrison wanted. Indy has a found family, he gets his wife back.

Overall it's a good, solid, Indiana Jones movie. Although it's clear that it isn’t directed by Steven Spielberg it still fits the overall style of the franchise. I’d give it a solid 8.5/10 and it is still one of the better films that’s come out this year. I am glad that Harrison got to say goodbye to the character that he loves so much in a way that he is happy with.