Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny - Movie Review
2"Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" (2023) directed by James Mangold is objectively an unnecessary cash grab but I would be lying if I said I didn't have some fun with it. It is now responsible for introducing time travel into the Indiana Jones franchise so I imagine this one will be quite controversial for that reason.
Indy (Harrison Ford) meets face to face with a Nazi villain from his past named Dr. Voller (Mads Mikkelsen). Both Indy and Voller are after an artifact which can control ripples in time and space, essentially allowing past events to be altered. Indy reluctantly teams up with his goddaughter Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), who is a crooked money addict (for lack of better words). We learn that Indiana's son has died in combat off screen and his wife has left him.
Indiana Jones 5 was entertaining enough to be excused by me. It features plenty of action, and well paced forwards momentum despite the film being quite long. The chemistry between Harrison Ford & Phoebe Waller-Bridge as a duo partnership did save the film at times when it was failing. Just like "Casino Royale" (2006), Mads Mikkelsen elevates his relatively weak villain character into something memorable.
Where the film fails is first and foremost that it's pretty much pointless and shares no continuity with "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (2008). In Crystal Skull, Indy was supposed to pass the torch to his son but that is just jarringly wiped away when beginning this one. I felt the time travel stuff was quite weak and surface leveled. The film itself is extremely safe and will not be surprising you at any point.
The 5th Indiana Jones movie is not that great but it was more entertaining and enjoyable than two others in the series in my opinion, which is a little sad but I guess it makes sense. At the end of the day, this is an obsolete story that was invented to make some quick money and it ended up having the complete opposite effect as it bombed in the box office.
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