It’s been 15 years since the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was released, which doesn’t exactly make me want to see another Indy movie. Still, despite the not-so-stellar early reviews, I was determined to stay neutral and judge Dial of Destiny for myself.

It starts out with a familiar sequence in 1944 where Indy is captured by the Nazis during the Allied WWII liberation in Europe. The main relic the plot hinges on is the Archimedes Dial, based on a real ancient Greek astronomical calculator called Antikythera mechanism that’s capable of locating fissures in time. Akin to the ‘multiverse’ in superhero movies, the MacGuffin in the latest Indy adventure deals with the frailty of time and space continuum.

In any event, Indy manages to escape from captivity and ends up boarding a train filled with Nazi loot, joined by fellow Oxford archaeologist Basil Shaw (a hilarious Toby Jones) who’s also captured. It’s fun to see Indy constantly one-stepping the Nazis, including the Reich’s astrophysicist Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) who wants the Dial for his own nefarious purposes.

Much has been said about the de-aging process of Harrison Ford, given that he’s supposed to be in his late 30s during the WWII event, something reportedly Steven Spielberg was hesitant about. Well, I have to say that the de-aged Ford looks better than I expected! Indy’s face actually looks more realistic than Luke Skywalker in The Mandalorian. It’s a good thing it’s not a botched CGI given young Indy appears for at least 20 minutes in the movie and in close-ups too!

Taking over directing duty from Spielberg is James Mangold (Logan, Ford vs Ferrari) which apparently was suggested by Ford after they worked together in The Call of the Wild that Mangold produced. Forgoing the use of super that tells us location and time, we’re transported from the European Alps to Indy’s crummy apartment in Manhattan. The year is 1969, during the Cold War and Space Race period. Fans would be amused (or elated) seeing Ford looking pretty darn good shirtless in his 80s! He’s still as curmudgeon as ever, but to be fair, he has the right to be as he’s separated from his wife Marion and being pushed to retirement by the university. 

But of course, his next adventure looms close with the arrival of Basil’s daughter Helena “Wombat” Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), a chipper, mischievous, and sly recent archaeology grad who doesn’t share Indy’s idealistic approach to archaeological finds. While Indy always insist that ancient artifacts ‘belong in a museum,’ Helena nonchalantly sells them for profit. Plus she’s not above sleeping with men to get what she wants. I suppose that’s the female archetype to be expected in the Fleabag generation. The two banter constantly which can be aggravating at times, but there is an emotional moment where Indy talks about his regret about his family, and it shows the character’s sentimental side rarely displayed.

Just like the Mission Impossible movies, Dial of Destiny contains one chase sequence after another and they become quite indistinguishable from one another. Both MI7 and ID5 feature a train fight scene, as well as a motorbike + tiny car on Italian cobblestoned streets, I wonder if they even share the same stunt team?? Both movies also involve a thieving young woman and underwater scenes that feels rather eerie after the doomed Titan submersible tragedy. One of the centerpiece action set pieces is the Tuk-tuk chase all over busy streets in Tangier, which reminds me of the over-the-top Tuk-tuk scene in the 1983 Bond movie Octopussy). The scene introduces us to Helena’s teenage buddy Teddy (Ethann Isidore), a nod to Ke Huy Quan’s Short Round, who tags along for the ride and the rest of the adventure.

Given much of the criticism of the previous movie, this movie wisely stays away from any kind of alien storyline, though not forgoing sci-fi entirely. In fact, the absolutely bonkers finale gets thigh-slapping laughter from the audience. I won’t spoil it for you, but let’s just say the Archimedes Dial isn’t as reliable as one hopes. While the action scenes are amusing, I feel like the four writers who concoct that ending ought to be knocked out of their senses.

I did enjoy the numerous nods to Indy’s previous ventures and the appearance of fan-favorite characters: Sallah (John Rhys-Davies) and Marion (Karen Allen). As for the new faces, Mikkelsen can play any kind of villain in his sleep. After the war, Voller manages to join NASA and goes by Dr. Schmidt, complete with CIA-pretend agents as his bodyguards. Boyd Holbrook essentially plays a similar character to the one in Logan, just dumber and trigger-happy. The most puzzling casting is Antonio Banderas in a blink-and-you-miss-it role, but the clear MVP is undoubtedly Ford himself. His timeless charisma makes even the most absurd situations worth sitting through, plus he’s still quite sprightly in the action scenes.

In the end, Mangold + co aren’t reinventing the wheel here, the movie mostly serves as a tribute to the legendary whip-cracking archaeologist with his last, rip-roaring adventure. Admittedly, I was caught up in the nostalgia of it all–the fedora, snapping whip, John Williams’ iconic rousing theme, and of course Ford himself. I expect a great deal of fan service given this is billed as a  farewell movie, so I don’t mind that. While there are things that make me roll my eyes, there are more good than bad, so I think fans of the franchise would likely have a fun time with this one.

Have you seen Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny? What did you think?

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