Indiana Jones came out of retirement for one last adventure
on June 30 for James Mangold’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, a
film rife with nostalgia in Disney’s continued plundering of time-tested IP in
pursuit of theatrical fortune and glory. Given the lukewarm box office
reception in its debut weekend, during which it fell short of projections by
whipping up just $82 million domestically over five days, it’s safe to say that
fortune eluded Indy this time around – especially given its $300 million
budget. As for the glory? Well, that depends.
Way back in 2008, I was remarkably high on Kingdom of the
Crystal Skull, a film that became the subject of much derision due to its fridge-nuking
propensity for silliness. Although I affirm that Crystal Skull is still
the weakest in the series to this day (spoiler: Dial of Destiny is a stronger
film), it still has that classic Steven Spielberg charm in spots and features
Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones – one of the greatest marriages of actor and character
in movie history.
And it’s that strength of Ford’s performance that carries much
of Dial of Destiny, even when it veers into the realm of the preposterous.
Infamously a curmudgeon in the press these days, Ford, 80, has a twinkle in his
eye as he closes the curtain on a character that he, Spielberg and George Lucas
created more than 40 years ago. Indy alumni Karen Allen and John Rhys-Davies
return as Marion Ravenwood and Sallah, joined by series newcomers Phoebe Waller-Bridge
as Indy’s goddaughter Helena Shaw, Ethann Isidore as aspiring aviator Teddy,
and Mads Mikkelsen as the villainous Jürgen Voller. The story, which spans several
decades, revolves around Archimedes’ Dial, a device that gives its wielder the
power to transcend space and time.
Mangold had big shoes to fill in directing the first and
only Indiana Jones film not helmed by Spielberg, but as he did with the
phenomenal Logan, he tells a compelling story about an aging hero coming
to terms with the mistakes of the past and the mounting limits of his mortality.
A well-paced first act shows us a younger World War II-era Indy (by way of some
impressive de-aging technology) escaping Nazis on board a speeding train, where
we’re introduced to the film’s main villain and the titular Dial (or at least
half of it). We then catch up with an elderly Indy in 1969 on the cusp of his
retirement, but a chance reconnection with his estranged goddaughter Helena brings
him back into conflict with Nazis and back into pursuit of an artifact that has
the power to alter the course of history.
A fun first act gives way to a muddy middle that caused me
to look at my own Dial of Destiny (my watch) a few times, and the climax is going
to be something scholars (nerds) debate for a long, long time. That said, for a
series that’s featured beating hearts plucked from chests, an eleventh-century
knight living long enough to learn the Charleston and actual ALIENS, I didn’t bump
into the film’s final scenes as much as some other people on the internet and I’m
satisfied with where Indy ultimately winds up.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny likely won’t be the
most memorable film you see this year or even this summer, and anyone expecting
it to reach the highs of the original three films will be as disappointed as
Walter Donovan when he wet his whistle in the Canyon of the Crescent Moon. That
said, getting to see Ford as Indiana Jones one more time goes a long way. And
when it comes to long-running, decades-spanning franchises – Indy or otherwise –
it’s not the years. It’s the mileage.
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