Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
I finally made it to the cinema again, the first time since “Knives out” after which the pandemic started. I wanted it to a special film to bring me back, after all.
With “Raiders of the lost ark” being such a transformative movie experience for me during my teenage years, enjoying “Temple of Doom” as a roller coaster horror adventure and saying goodbye to my first two decades of life with “The Last Crusade”, weeks before I started to go to university, I had loved to reconnect with Dr. Jones in “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” and got my nostalgia fix despite being bored during too many sequences. After that I was ready to say: okay, that’s it for Indy, and I’m fine with it.
I never thought that this fifth film would happen, nor that it was necessary. Especially without Spielberg at the helm. And when the pandemic delayed filming I was secretly hoping the project would be shelved. I love Harrison Ford, and he’s only getting better with age, but it was rather obvious that in his late 70´s he would play Indy differently than in the previous films. The action would have to be less or given to other characters.
When this fifth film actually got made and finished, I was delighted nevertheless, hoping for the kind of “NTTD making SPECTRE a better film”-effect. I was disappointed that Spielberg would not finish the series, and a bit skeptical about James Mangold taking over. I love his COPLAND, but none of his other movies connected with me so far. I think he is a good director but rather thematically, not really visually.
I had the disadvantage of seeing DIAL OF DESTINY being relegated already to a smaller screen venue (with only three people in the audience, beside my lovely wife and me), but after having seen the film I don’t think that a bigger screen would have made the visual storytelling more impactful.
Because Mangold and an his cinematographer are absolutely not as elegant and playful as Spielberg. Sure, nobody really can be. But the whole time I never got the impression that the images wowed me, and therefore they did not transport me to all those locations. I looked at it and thought: this is efficient. But not graceful.
And that’s what most of the film felt like to me. Efficient. It does what it needs to. It is fine. It´s not annoying. It is a nice one. But it´s also a bit paint by numbers. Aside from the finale when it finally deals with a really interesting idea. Up to that moment it just lacks surprises, I’m sorry to say. And that’s what Spielberg, even in KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL, always managed to inject.
Also, and that’s what I feared with Ford being at this age, the action feels pedestrian and routine. And so often the effects just aren’t good enough to distract from the stuntmen. A bit like AVATAK, in that regard.
And the CGI - I don’t know, guys. While I liked the idea of getting a former “previously unreleased” Indy sequence at the beginning, Ford’s de-aged face so often just was not that convincing. The technique, IMO, just is not there yet (which I basically am thankful for, regarding all the consequences of a perfection of this technique). Again, it was… fine enough, but at no point I thought: this is really the younger Harrison Ford.
But even apart from that distraction, the whole opening sequence is unnecessarily complicated. The McMuffin
Summary
could have been introduced immediately as the object of desire, with the fake spear taking too much screen time. It should have already started on the train, too, cutting more of unneccessary CGI and green screen work which, by the way, also too often looked not up to the standards of today.
Then the sequence with Indy in 1969 - I loved that introduction, the feeling of Indy not fitting in anymore. This is what Ford said, he wanted to achieve, and this is truly great and a worthy addition to the series.
After that the movie becomes a series of action sequences which, as I pointed out, all felt fine to me but too much routine. Been there, done that. And Spielberg, I’m sorry, did it so much better. With him, action was a ballet. With Mangold it´s mainly edited together for pace and impact, thereby losing spatial continuity.
Maybe this adds to my impression that all the action just kind of follows and follows and follows and blends everything together. Nothing really stands out. There is no feeling of exhilaration: “oh, no, they are doing that? Oh, man, this is getting better and better!” Instead I thought: “yeah, that will happen, and that, and of course they need to do that…”
So the movie feels extremely long instead of just being long. You could have easily edited two or three major sequences out, resulting in a faster, more focused film - and a tighter budget.
But I do admit that this might again be a case of expectations ruining my movie experience. Expectations, of course, set by the previous films. In a way, this last film is like one of the lesser Bond films. And yes, I do think AVTAK is a good example. I do enjoy it. But it´s not great, and it´s going through the motions.
However, and this I cannot stress enough, DIAL OF DESTINY, apart from its interesting finale, has two scenes which are just marvelous. Both have no action but are character moments.
Summary
The first one is with Indy and Helena on the boat, talking about his son´s death and how his marriage to Marion crumbled under that impact.
The second one is the last scene with Marion and Indy doing the “Where doesn’t it hurt?”-scene from “Raiders” in reversed roles.
Those alone save the movie for me. And that last scene, yes, made me fight back my tears. Because it not only reminded me of the passage of time between “Raiders” and now, but also about everything that happened in my life since then. And the realization that, well, you can´t go home again, while not new, hit hard. At least…
Summary
Indy could go home. I was so grateful of Helena saving him from dying in the Archimedes past. I just did not want to see another of my heroes choosing death again.
By the way, Phoebe Waller-Bridge is very good in this (although I think her comic style might be about to reach its saturation), and so is Mikkelsen. It is nice to see
Summary
John Rhys-Davies as Sallah again, too. And the kid is fine and not annoying (although I would have preferred to see the grown Ke Huy Quan as Short Round instead.)
Writing this while listening to John Williams´ score, I am discovering that the music is unfortunately too low in the film mix. The music is fantastic, once again, and it should be more dominant in the movie. Well, Spielberg would have put it front and center, I’m sure.
Maybe I have to see it again, maybe I will enjoy it much more knowing what it is and what it isn’t. But I don’t think I will like it more than CRYSTAL SKULL. It will remain a footnote to this series, with some interesting ideas and two wonderful scenes. A nice to have.
But this should be the end of this series. And due to the box office I don’t think we will see a Helena Shaw continuation. Although this film definitely sets her up for it, giving her action scenes which in previous films should have been done by Indy himself.
How would I rank this film within the series? Well, it´s easy. Since I rank every Indy film in the order of its release. The first one was the best.
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