First Take: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny - an 80 year old, making a big action adventure film, yes, really

SYNOPSIS: Archaeologist Indiana Jones races against time to retrieve a legendary artifact that can change the course of history. 

It’s been 14 years since Kingdom of the Crystal Skull released, and since then a lot has happened to get a brand new Indiana Jones in cinemas - Lucasfilm was bought out, Steven Spielberg stepped away to focus on more personal projects, franchise creator George Lucas retired in 2012, and of course, Harrison Ford continues to get older. But in their infinite wisdom they all thought there was one more adventure to be had, and in terms of a pure big screen spectacle it does the job- well, most of the time..

Taking over from Spielberg in Disney’s first Indy adventure is James Mangold, who’s becoming a bit of an expert in ending beloved franchises in emotional ways, and he does a good job taking a very well worn directors’ chair - it’s the longest in the franchise at 2 hours 34 minutes, but it doesn’t feel as long as it does once the pacing hits its stride, and this is where Mangold’s work on the script alongside David Koepp, and the Butterworths (Jez and John Henry) comes in, hitting all of the nostalgia points and satisfying the fans, and making new moments that are more suited to a current day multiplex kind of audience. Obviously this hasn’t gone down well with everyone, but if screen 3 was anything to go by, that audience loved it. Behind the camera is Phedon Papamichael, who does a hell of a job on this film, and on scoring duties, well, would it be Indy without John Williams? Retirement didn’t last long.

On to the cast, and at 80 years old, Harrison Ford - while not doing as many of his own stunts these days - still knows how to play that role like nothing has ever changed. Joining him for what seems to be his last one as Indy is Phoebe Waller-Bridge (who obviously had the privilege of doing some uncredited polishes to her lines in the film), Toby Jones and Antonio Banderas, with Mads Mikkelsen, Boyd Holbrook and Olivier Richters (who calls himself ‘the Dutch giant’) rounding out this film. It’s a decent amount of starpower, but at times, the script does feel like one big nostalgia grab, and of course without spoiling too much, we do get a definitive ending with this film unlike Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, something producer Kathleen Kennedy said she wanted to do once the Lucasfilm/Disney deal closed.

THE VERDICT

While fans of the series will rightly say that the original films remain the strongest, Dial of Destiny understands its assignment: introduce the character to a new generation and get them to watch the older films on a certain streaming service which I doubt anyone knows the name of - wait, it’s Disney+. Had it opened later on in the year it would’ve had a better box office (it’s currently bombing hard), but with Mission Impossible looming, other family films currently playing, and other factors, this feels like the perfect time and place to wrap it all up.

RATING: 3/5