Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, we expected worse              

If you’ve read any reviews of spoilers about Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny they’re all true. It kind of falls under the idiom of, whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right. There are some great moments in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. There are some pointless moments, instances of human physical impossibility, a case study of why de-aging characters is a horrible choice, and examples of why adding more cooks to the kitchen never results in a better quality film. However, thanks to Mads Mikkelsen, the score by John Williams and, to an extent, Harrison Ford, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny isn’t the train wreck that resembled Crystal Skull.

As I’m a glass-half-full kind of guy, let’s examine the more enjoyable aspects of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Mads Mikkelsen as Nazi agent Jurgen Voller deliciously chews up every scene he’s in. His character is shown in the twilight days of WWII, as well as, the late 1960s. While I do enjoy movie scores by Danny Elfman, Indiana Jones is synonymous with the distinctive sound of John Williams. Williams’ classic sounds are here and also include some new compositions during the requisite chase scenes. When those three elements are combined, as they are in the chase sequence that happens in the first 20 minutes, then Dial of Destiny is effortless to enjoy and gives you hope that the film will be in the same league as Last Crusade.

That chase sequence is where the de-aging has been put upon Harrison Ford and Mads Mikkelsen. If you ignore it, then their de-aging won’t bother you. However, even our 11-year-old, who knew nothing about the process, said that there was something funny about that action sequence. I tried explaining to him that it was a cinematic trick that was done to make an 80-year-old actor appear to be his 40-year-old self, but that fell on deaf ears. I noticed that the de-aging actually didn’t look that horrible, but it was distracting and very strange when paired with Ford’s current voice, which is unable to be de-aged. The voice of an 80-year-old in the body of a 40-year-old is very different and looked as if it was an audio dubbing gone sideways.

Speaking of bad audio dubbing, let’s talk for a moment about undercranking or speed ramping. Those techniques I associate with older karate movies where they film the action at a slower rate, and then speed it up during normal playback. There’s a tuk-tuk rickshaw chase in ‘Tangier’. I say ‘Tangier’ because it’s supposed to be in Tangier, Morocco, but large elements of the sequence are obviously green-screened. In several instances when Indiana was driving the tuk-tuk the wind, crowd, vehicle’s wheels or his body movements were out of sync with real time. The crowd reacted too fast, relative to the passing vehicle or the plants in the scene were blowing too quickly. It was the first time that I’d seen an undercranked or speed-ramped scene that probably had green screen elements, thankfully no de-aging was used during these sequences.

The new characters in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, aside from Jurgen Voller, aren’t memorable or likable. That’s saying something because I do not want my favorite new character from Dial of Destiny to be the Nazi. Phoebe Waller-Bridge plays Ford’s goddaughter and doesn’t sell the character’s ability to do action. She’s only in the treasure game for the money and doesn’t have feelings for those around her. When Indiana’s Spanish boat captain friend gets unceremoniously killed a scant ten minutes after being introduced, she’s glib and focuses on the money. Indiana is going through a divorce with Marion and he goes through the first half of the movie being a grumpy old man.

And then the final act of the movie happens that will leave your jaw on the movie theater floor. It’s a twist with more in common with Army of Darkness than Indiana Jones. It’s also a bold choice that will divide some audiences just as clearly as the UFO reveal in Crystal Skull. When Indiana Jones found the Grail Knight, who had been waiting millennia for someone to replace him it was tender, sweet, and unbelievable. When Indiana Jones finds his unbelievable instance in Dial of Destiny, it’s also a bit tender, a little sweet, but has a caustic exit that wasn’t necessary.

With all of this said, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is still a movie that will reel in fans based on the goodwill and memories of the franchise. Ironically, Mads Mikkelsen’s dialogue in the film sets the pace and attitude early on. His character says something along the lines of “America didn’t lose the war, Hitler lost it.” It’s not that Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny isn’t a bad movie, it’s just that it doesn’t follow the template that made the great ones in the series so timeless. This is a legacy band that still has a couple of the original players in the lineup but has added elements to replace some of the ones that left. The end result is still entertaining, but it requires grading it on a curve and relying on the memories that the original provided back in the day.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is rated PG-13 for action and violence.