Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny – Digital Review
Indiana Jones is back for a fifth instalment in the “Dial Of Destiny”, which sees Harrison Ford don his hat and picks up his whip for one more adventure. The film is packed full of crazy adventures and it opens with an extended action scene on a train during World War 2, with Indiana Jones trying to rescue his friend, while also stealing back some artefacts from the Nazis. This scene uses lots of de-ageing technology to make Harrison Ford look younger, which is some incredible technology, as while there is the odd little time, it looks odd, but you quickly forget once the action kicks in. As you might expect with a scene involving a train, there’s plenty of action, both in and on top of the train. We are also introduced to the film’s main villain, a German scientist, Jürgen Voller, played by the excellent Mads Mikkelsen, who has discovered one half of the “Antikythera”, a time travelling device, that was broken into parts and spread around the world to stop it ever being used.
This sets up the main story of the film, as following the adventure in Germany, the film flashes forward to the ’60s, following the moon landing, and we find an old haggard Indy, living on his own in a small apartment in New York City, on his last day as a University professor. Indiana isn’t in a great place, but when his goddaughter, Helena, played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, turns up, asking about the “Antikythera”, things take a turn, which involves a chase scene on horseback through a parade in New York City!
From here, as you might expect, we are then on an adventure around the world to Morocco, Italy and Greece, as Indiana and Helena seek out the other parts of the “Antikythera” before the Nazis can, to stop them from going back in time and changing the outcome of World War 2. We’ve already seen Indiana Jones come face to face with Aliens, ancient knights, and voodoo warriors, so why not throw time travel into the mix too!
Harrison Ford is perfect as the grumpy old man who is beaten down but never gives up, and there are plenty of moments in this film where we get to see a more vulnerable side to the character, especially when he has a monologue about how his life could have turned out better, (which also explains why Shia LaBeouf isn’t in the film).
The addition of Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Helena is an interesting aspect to the film, since she’s almost a villain for the good half of the movie, as she is only motivated by money, but obviously, eventually, realises that her father was right about the device and assists Indy in his quest to stop Jürgen Voller and his group of goons! She is a breath of fresh air to the film, giving Indy a natural foil to bounce off, as you never know exactly what she’s going to do next, and she has natural charisma, which makes the film so much more interesting. She is very much an equal to Indy, both physically and mentally, plus she has her own kid sidekick that is a little one-dimensional, but necessary for the plot to work! The villains are also all a bit one-dimensional; the goons especially are generic, but even though this film is well over two hours long, we don’t get to have much development of the main villain. But ultimately, you still want Indy just to punch his lights out!
The digital version of “Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny” comes with an extensive behind-the-scenes documentary, which is just under an hour long, but broken up into five chapters, that takes a look at the making of the key scenes in the film, the prologue, New York, Morocco, Sicily and the finale. As you might expect from any official making-of documentary, it’s all very fluffy and self-celebratory, but it is also great to see how the key scenes in the film were made.
There’s been lots of talk over the budget of the latest “Indiana Jones” film, since it cost over $300 million to make and during the documentary, you can get a feeling of how the costs kept escalating with so much being shot on location, with lots of extras and physical effects, in addition to building huge sets. It’s certainly insightful to see how much effort went into making this film as good as they could, ironically, trying to make it feel like a film made in the 1980s, but with lots of modern visual effects to deal with Harrison Ford’s age, causing lots of issues they had to overcome. I really enjoyed the behind-the-scenes documentary, and I could have easily seen Disney release this all together as a “Disney+ Original”, but instead, they just made it a bonus feature.
Overall: I really enjoyed “Dial Of Destiny”. It was a fun adventure movie, that pulled on the nostalgia of the original films and delivered some major action scenes. The film’s final act is a little crazy, but since we got aliens in the last film, the concept of keeping this franchise in the realm of reality is long gone. Did this movie need to be made? Nope! Does it add anything to the Indiana Jones franchise? Nope! Is it a fun adventure film? Yes! And that’s kind of the point of this film, Indiana Jones is supposed to be like a serial series from yesteryears. It’s an adventure, it’s full of fun and isn’t supposed to be taken seriously. If you go into this film expecting it to be better than the original trilogy (we’ll forget the last one), you will be disappointed. Go in with an open mind and just let go of the real world. Enjoy Indy going on one last epic adventure to fight some Nazis, rummage through some caves for artefacts, chase bad guys through the streets and take us on a trip around the world. The final act does feel a little weird, but when you think of what actually happened in the previous four films, it’s not that much of a stretch, but I can see how some fans might feel a little uneasy with it. At least with the digital release, since it is a little long, you can pause the film whenever you want, which is the benefit of watching at home.
“Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny” was a typical big summer blockbuster film; it’s got a simple plot and is full of crazy action scenes, that defy logic. I really enjoyed it. It delivered exactly what I expected and more. It’s entertaining, if a little predictable, but overall, it’s just some light-hearted fun that is worth watching, especially if you enjoyed the previous Indiana Jones films.
Rating: 4 Out Of 5
“Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny” is out now to purchase on major digital retailers, including Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play, Fetch and Microsoft.
Roger Palmer
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