Making a sequel to any beloved movie is an uphill battle. But making the fourth sequel in a series as revered as “Indiana Jones” is practically impossible, especially after the divisive reception to “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.” Not only that, but this fifth film, “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” is the first movie to not be directed by Spielberg, instead passing that baton to James Mangold (“Logan,” “Ford v. Ferrari”), nor to be written by Lucas. It’s certainly a tall order; so how do Mangold and his co-writers Jez Butterworth (“Edge of Tomorrow,” “Ford v. Ferrari”), John-Henry Butterworth (“Edge of Tomorrow,” “Ford v. Ferrari”), and David Koepp (“Mission: Impossible (1996),” “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”) fair?
Set in 1969, an aging Indiana Jones, played by Harrison Ford (“Blade Runner,” “Patriot Games”), is finally retiring from his teaching job and is visited by his god-daughter Helena Shaw, played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge (“Fleabag,” “Solo: A Star Wars Story”), who’s searching for Archimedes’’ dial, an artifact that is said to potentially allow someone to travel through time. Shortly after their meeting, the pair find themselves in a race against Jürgen Voller, played by Mads Mikkelsen (“Casino Royale (2006),” “Another Round”), a Nazi scientist who seeks to use the dial to correct Hitler’s mistakes in World War II, and his right-hand man Klaber, played by Boyd Holbrook (“Logan,” “Vengeance”).
The film has all the elements necessary for a typical Indiana adventure, and to its credit, the film does manage to be a fun adventure. Ford is clearing in love with his role and is a fantastic presence here, taking it all as serious as gospel. Bridge is a great addition, keeping the sleazy, snarky attitude alive throughout this adventure and holding her own as a scoundrel against Ford’s gruff attitude. Mikkelsen is doing some fun work here, leaning into his typical “European bad guy” persona, but the character of Voller isn’t really anything special beyond “mad Nazi scientist.” Holbrook is completely wasted here, as Klaber fails to add anything of note to the film besides being a generic, trigger happy, right-hand man to the villain.
This is a tough film to judge, especially without Spielberg at the helm. It feels like death by a thousand cuts a lot of the time. For example, while it doesn’t have the deft hand of Spielberg or cinematographers Janusz Kamiński or Douglas Slocombe, the film is shot far better than most other big-budget blockbusters nowadays. Phedon Papamichael (“Ford v. Ferrari,” “The Trial of the Chicago 7”) is no slouch and brings a lot of fantastic camerawork to the adventure, framing the action well and making it all flow in a satisfying way.
The writing is also pretty good, with Mangold and his team trying to not only continue to embellish the themes of the previous movies but also set Indy up for a true finale that will leave fans satisfied. It’s a tall order, and while it does feature cameos from a handful of past characters, crucially the film doesn’t rely on them. For better or worse, it’s a film that clearly is meant to stand above the typical nostalgia bait of these kinds of legacy sequels. But there are also a handful of characters introduced and simply abandoned. Shaunette Renée Wilson (“Billions,” “The Resident”) and Antonio Banderas (“Puss in Boots,” “The Mask of Zorro (1998)”) both get fun and memorable introductions and then the film just tosses them aside. It’s possible this is the result of rewrites or reshoots, but it ends up just leaving the film with a few too many excess characters that just feel like dead weight.
It’s in the technical aspects where things falter more than they should. For a film with a budget of $300 million, there’s far too many wonky elements throughout. While the practical chases and action sequences are excellent, such as the tuk-tuk chase and a chaotic battle in a nightclub, other moments fall flat. The much-publicized de-aging for the film’s prologue actually works quite well, but it’s the green screen and other effects surrounding it during that prologue that fare worse. Likewise, numerous small moments of characters just standing against a backdrop look terrible. Someone standing against a night sky or brightly lit countryside shouldn’t have the hazy glow of early 2000s green screen cutouts to them, especially when your budget is $300 million. Yes, there are many fantastic combinations of CGI, green screen, and practical effects. But when they don’t work, they stick out far worse than they otherwise might.
There’s also the film’s length. While its paced fine enough and doesn’t feel like things ever drag on, it certainly doesn’t feel any shorter than it is. At two-hours-and-thirty-four-minutes, it’s the longest “Indiana” film by a wide margin, and there are times where it doesn’t feel like it’s justifying that length. The shot-to-shot editing can also feel weird, with the camera lingering on characters and moments for far too long that it just seems out of place.
At the end of the day, the only question that really remains is if this movie, this much publicized final adventure of Ford as Indiana Jones, manages to be a worthwhile send-off to the character he and we love so much. And the answer is… kind of. While the worst aspects of the film are mostly technical merits, there’s a weird lack of specialness to the adventure despite what we’re seeing on screen. It’s a fun enough time, and certainly isn’t a bad film. But it ends up being a bittersweet farewell because it doesn’t perfectly stick the landing. This is still a fun tale and will make a lot of fans happy, but it’s not hard to imagine Doctor Jones having a better, more solid, ending than this. 3.5/5
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