Details from IMDB:
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Archaeologist Indiana Jones races against time to retrieve a legendary artifact that can change the course of history.
Initial Thoughts:
Indy is an iconic character and is almost as much Harrison Ford as he is fictional. The movies (the good ones) are classic and represent almost a bygone area of action/adventure/fun that is very hard to find these days. Like everyone, I was very disappointed with “Crystal Skull” and very hopeful this would give us a good ending. The fact that Ford is 81 meant that this must be it, I think it’s great he got a chance to do one more story in the saga. So of course, I went to see this during my usual early matinee time.
Main Points:
This movie has had a lot of criticism and while I agree with some of it, I also think people are overly hard on it. That said I do have some concerns/Issues with the movie, so I’ll discuss those first. There was a little issue with the flashback scene, it was exciting and felt like the Indy I always enjoyed. The de-aging worked well with Harrison, and he looked young, but he was still older sounding, and this took me out of the movie a little bit. The story try’s hard to recapture the fun and adventure of previous movies but only succeeds sometimes, most of the time it feels a little forced.
Enough negative though, I had fun with this movie, and I thought Harrison did a great job. He adds dept to Indy and was brave in moments where you see he’s a senior and is starting to struggle with life (both physically and mentally). Picturing Indy as a lonely, retired senior is not something I imagined for Indy, but it made sense and I liked the ending.
I thought Phoebe Walker-Bridge did a good job, though her character is not the best. She is a plot device to get the story moving and get Indy to the right place in his life. The best parts for me were the past scenes, along with some nice fan service, good action scenes and of course when the Nazis activate the dial and do something they never should.
Final Thoughts:
I had fun with this movie, with good special effects, some nice serious moments, and of course, what Indy was meant to do, punch Nazis in the face. I also enjoyed the many nods and references to previous movies, along with some good cameos. There are a lot of choices this summer but if you’re an Indy fan I would recommend seeing this. I give it 7.5 out of 10 and I think it’s a good ending to the series. Not for small children, ages 13+. I’m not sure why so many movies are 2.5 hours these days and I think this movie could have been trimmed down a bit.