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I was initially surprised when I saw the trailer for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny in the lobby of a local cineplex…honestly thinking how could there possibly be a new Indiana Jones movie? But I tried to keep an open mind and the only info I was curious about in advance was what era the film was supposedly set in, since Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was set in 1957 in order to deal with Harrison Ford’s age at the time. Learning that Dial of Destiny was going to be set in 1944 and 1969 (ugh) I did feel some initial queasiness but still tried to keep an open mind.

I’ve finally purchased and watched the film on a streaming service and I can give an honest review of it. In the first 20 minutes, set in 1944, we are treated to a very good action sequence in the style of the previous films with a impressively de-aged Harrison Ford, and I thought this might not be bad after all.

A very exciting sequence in which certain intriguing plot points are introduced. Then after this impressive beginning the film jarringly jumps to Indiana Jones in 1969, living in a sh*tty apartment and asleep on a couch while H.R. Pufnstuf plays on the TV. What?! Indy shouldn’t be watching Pufnstuf! 😖 And then an obligatory bit featuring ‘60s music just to drive in the point that this is a “new era” for the character.

I can’t tell you how much I hated the whole New York section of the film. The director, James Mangold, tried to create a more gritty, realistic feel, almost in the style of The French Connection and Dog Day Afternoon. Now I love both The French Connection and Dog Day Afternoon, but that kind of filmic feel doesn’t belong in an Indiana Jones film! And this section of the film is way too violent for the franchise, in my opinion.

When the film finally moved to the exotic Tangier, Morocco location, it at least began to (partially) feel like an Indiana Jones film. Yeah the plot became too convoluted with having Helena’s fiancé and his goons mixed into the fray, but at least the hotel fight and subsequent “tuk-tuk” chase were entertaining.

The exotic locales are expanded upon when the story moves the action to the Aegean Sea and Syracuse, Sicily. The whole underwater sequence is well done with the retrieval of a “graphikos” tablet to aid in the location of Archimedes’ tomb and the other half of the Antikythera device. The depiction of the tomb is inventive as is the Antikythera prop mechanism.

The final time travel section back to the Siege of Syracuse in 212 B.C. is actually really well done and impressive, sending Indy back to the past that he had studied all his life.

And the John Williams score for Dial of Destiny is as excellent as his previous work in the franchise.

Now for all the cons! As I said, the whole NY part of the film is so jarring and out of place in this type of movie that I’m actually amazed I kept watching at that point. The whole Helena Shaw character, Indy’s goddaughter, has been very controversial and with good reason. Throughout most of the film her character is basically unlikeable and is given the lion’s share of the action, in an attempt to contrast her younger character with the aged Indiana Jones. She is seen decoding a lot of the plot’s clues even before Indy, who in many scenes is almost a passive bystander. And just like in Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’s character of Mutt Williams (Indy’s son), I got the queasy feeling that her character was being groomed to carry on the franchise in the future. I actually confirmed the suspicion in Crystal Skull by finding out that yes indeed, George Lucas had considered continuing the series with Mutt, yikes! 😫

Although amazingly in preparation for this new film I had rewatched all 4 previous films and actually enjoyed Crystal Skull even more than when I had first seen it. Sure Mutt (Shia LeBeouf) is annoying when he first appears in the film, but then his character isn’t actually that bad throughout the rest of the movie.

And the character of Teddy in Dial of Destiny is actually more annoying than Short Round in Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom.

I have always thought that Temple of Doom is the weaker film in the original trilogy, but it does have a lot of good stuff in it.

There are actually reviewers who have said that the whole time travel aspect in Dial of Destiny is far fetched. Huh? I sometimes wonder if any of these people have even seen the previous films. You of course had supernatural elements in the original trilogy and inter-dimensional aliens in the previous film.

Of course in Raiders of the Lost Ark, there were angels/spirits from the Ark of the Covenant that melted Nazis, in Temple of Doom voodoo curses, powers imbued on a high priest by Hindu goddess Kali, in The Last Crusade a surviving knight of the First Crusade, the Holy Grail, etc.

Actually I’ll admit that the plot of Dial of Destiny is clever, using the idea that Archimedes actually did invent the Antikythera device (one of oldest known analogue “computers”). Now is the idea that it can actually create time travel total fiction? Of course! But I don’t think you can take ideas like this seriously in these films. Ditto the larger than life action sequences, you just can’t take them too seriously (Raiders of course has Indy being dragged underneath a truck!).

But I think the main problem with Dial of Destiny is the whole tone of the film. It lacks the fun, humor, and charm of the previous 4 films. And like Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, it seems out of place with placing Indy in a different era. I’ve always thought that Indiana Jones belongs in the 1930s; if you take Indy out of the ‘30s then it just doesn’t work. And of course both George Lucas and Steven Spielberg created the character as a sort of homage/throw-back to the Republic adventure serials they had enjoyed as youngsters.