Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny

If you look back in the history of cinema there are some iconic movie characters that will never die, no matter how old the films are. If you have a very strong character that movie lovers worldwide feel a connection to, chances are that a younger generation may discover what made that film so unique as well. There are several iconic movie characters that we could talk about in Hollywood history but let´s stick to especially one of them for now. And that is the character known as Indiana Jones played by legendary actor Harrison Ford. When we first saw Indiana Jones for the very first time in Raiders Of The Lost Ark in 1981, you could tell that there was something unique about him. Not only his personality but the way he handled different dangerous situations fighting nazi soldiers and leaders. Directed by legendary director Steven Spielberg, Raiders Of The Lost Ark starts off with archaeologist Indiana Jones ( Harrison Ford ) in the year of 1936 where he recovers the Golden Idol from a booby-trapped Peruvian temple. Rival archaeologist René Belloq ( Paul Freeman ) corners him and steals the idol. Dr Jones manage to escape with a waiting seaplane. As he returns to the United States, Dr Jones finds out that Nazi German forces are excavating at Tanis, Egypt. The nazis are hoping to find the Ark Of The Covenant, wich Adolf Hitler believe will make his army unstoppable. Dr Jones have no other option but to travel to Egypt and try to stop the nazis from taking the Ark Of The Covenant. There is no doubt that Raiders Of The Lost Ark is one of the greatest action adventure movies ever made and have so many classic scenes. In 1984 Indiana Jones returned for the sequel Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom with a much darker approach than before. I really enjoy this film for what it is a very majestic action adventure in India. In 1989 we got a third film called Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade where legendary actor Sean Connery played Dr Jones father. Also a really good sequel and worthy the franchise. 19 years later in 2008 professor Indiana Jones returned once more in Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull. A good sequel but perhaps not as strong as the previous film. So here we are in 2023 with the final Indiana Jones film with Harrison Ford in the lead role one last time. So the quest is, does this film hold the same quality as the films from the past or did they fail with this final sequel completely?

In 1944, Nazis capture Indiana Jones ( Harrison Ford ) and Oxford arcaheologist Basil Shaw ( Toby Jones ) as they try to retrieve the Lance of Longinus from a castle in the French Alps. Astrophysicist Jurgen Voller ( Mads Mikkelsen ) informs his superiors that the Lance is fake, but he has found half of Archimedes´ Dial, and Antikythera mechanism built by the ancient Suracusan mathmetician Archimedes ( Nasser Memarzia ). It is said that the Archimedes´ Dial can be used to do time travelling. Dr. Jones escapes from the castle and manage to jump on the train where Basil is being kept prisoner. They both manage to escape as Dr. Jones grabs the half of the Archimedes´ Dial and they jump off the train from a bridge into the water. Moving on to the year of 1968 and Dr. Jones is not retired from teachning archeology. While enjoying a drink at a local bar he have a visit from his godddaughter Helena Shaw, who is now an educated archaeologist. She bring him indormation on where she believe the other half of the Archimedes´ Dial might be and wants him to join her on an expidition. Dr. Jones agree to show her the half he found of this artifact but they are suddenly attacked by people working for Jurgen Voller. They manage to escape and realise that he wants to find the other half, so once more Dr. Jones has to do do what he can to stop nazis from changing time.

Whenever you have a sequel to a classic franchise you always wonder if they will be able to make a film worthy the previous films. In the case of Indiana Jones And The Dial of Destiny i understand if some people have some opinions considering lead actor Harrison Ford is very old still playing this iconic character. But you know what, you tell me how many people at the age of 81 who can pull of a performance such as this if not Harrison Ford. He may be older and may not be able to do what he did in the 1980´s but i am still impressed over his performance in this film. Not only because it´s nostalgic to see him back with his hat and whip, but Harrison Ford have such a uniqe screen presence that we don´t see in modern actors these days. Let´s get into the other characters in this film in a while and let´s talk about what i enjoy about this sequel. I do feel that the beginning of this film where they used a special filmining technique called De-aging to make Harrison Ford look younger looks pretty cool. Considering this is supposed to take place during World War II i understand they had to try to find a way to make this work and i think they did a good job. The train scenes are old school classic Indiana Jones with punches, guns and dangers just like we remember from the 80´s. So the De-aging scenes actually set the right tone for this film with plenty of action. When we move forward to the year of 1969 where Indiana Jones is now retired from teaching we see a completely different man. But i do think it was a good idea to show that even a hero from the past can go through rough times and not always live inside an adventure. They capture the time period of 1969 very well will costume design, hair cuts and of course the set designs. Speaking of characters earlier on we do have actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge here as Indiana Jones goddaughter Helena. At first she seems very nice but i like the fact that her character changes later into the film, as if she´s more interested in money than archeology. Her performance fit well with the character and some of her dialogue is actually funny. Mads Mikkelsen as the evil character Jurgen Voller does have some interesting scenes, especially towards the end when he shows his true nazi personality. Some other actors from the past shows up as well which is fun and nostalgic of course. Any problems with this film? The length is perhaps a little bit too long, over 2 hours and 30 minutes is hard to make a really good adventure film unless you really have put an effort in making it spectacular. Unfortunately this sequel doesn´t work as well as the 80´s film as an action adventure. That doesn´t mean i didn´t enjoy this film, i just feel that the length should have been trimmed down a bit. With that said is this a worthy final film for Indiana Jones? I would say yes since the ending does feel like it paid respect for the character and the fans as well. Director James Mangold may not be Steven Spielberg in film making but he did a good job bringing Indiana Jones back on the big screen, and he managed to keep some nostalgic details along the way to make you feel like this is an Indiana Jones film. If you love the previous films in this franchise, what are you waiting for? Go buy tickets to Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny and you will most likely have a good time, just like i did.

Rating: DDD