Movie Review: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Have you ever wanted to see Indiana Jones as a grouchy retiree instead of a young, daring adventurer? Well now you can! In Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, an old, jaded Indy gets swept up in the hunt for the dial of destiny by his goddaughter, Helena Shaw. With the help of friends old and new, the two race across the world to stop an evil Nazi scientist from obtaining time traveling-powers. Yes I said time-traveling powers. No I’m not exaggerating.

That said, this film also suffers from a common ailment of many 21st century productions: realistic lighting. I understand that they want to hide the stiff CGI face on the stunt double. However, what’s the point of watching Nazi’s get beat up in 4k if I have to squint to make out what’s happening. I will say that I did not notice anything odd about The CGI face the first time I watched the movie. After a second watch I can tell where some of the actor’s more strained expressions didn’t translate very well to the model.

Sound design/ music score (6/10)

I want to applaud sound designers for always finding ways to include the Wilhelm scream in every action film. True to form, Indiana Jones does its part in keeping this sacred tradition alive and well.

Outside of that, the sound design on this film was serviceable. The foley sounds on the fight scenes were cheesy but well done. Also, the vocals were clear and audible, so I could understand what was being said by the actors for the most part.

I don’t have much to comment on for the music score for this film. While it does reference the score and motifs of the original movies, it has an undercurrent of emotion to it that I can’t place, but feels electric. What I only know how to describe as ‘oomph’ that makes it feel like a more modern take on the soundtrack. I understand updating elements of film to be more palatable for a modern audience. However, the movie would have been better had they kept to a more period-accurate film score.

My other favorite performance from this movie was Ford’s Co-star Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Bridge played his young and daring protege and goddaughter Helena. I am not familiar with Bridge’s work outside of a few clips from Fleabag. However, I think she brought a level of complexity to the role that wouldn’t have been achieved had a conventional action star of the same caliber played Helena instead. She’s cunning and ambitious but not so infallible that it’s annoying.

Story (5/10)

The story for this movie was fun in a cheap way. On theme for the franchise but not transformative of the original material. The action scenes were fun and snappy and the plot twist at the end was predictable yet flawed. That said, I have yet to see a time travel loop done well in an action film so the bar wasn’t high for that plot point in the first place.

I’m aware that this isn’t the best movie of the series by a long shot. That said, showing the passage of time and how all Indy’s adventures caught up to him was important. We got to see the long-term effects of chasing the next adventure. The subsequent cost of running away from the ones who care about him the most was impactful to me to me at the very least. I do wish that him staying in the present was an intentional choice on his part for the sake of character growth. However, you could argue that it was a cry for help and someone finally listened to it. Overall, I like the concept of what they were going for in this movie, even if the execution was lackluster.