Goin in, I heard a lot of the hate for this movie, ergo - I didn't expect much. But overall it still ended up being a relatively decent Indiana Jones Film.
Is it on par with the originals? Of course not and I doubt anything ever will be. However it did what it could with what it had. All while genuinely attempting to stay true to itself as an original movie and respecting its franchise.
Subjectively speaking, it had all the right ingredients needed for an Indiana Jones Movie:
- A good title? Check
- An air of solving ancient puzzles while following clues leading to an ancient artifact? Check
Ancient ruins with traps and insects? Check
Action sequences? Check
One liners? Check
Hint of supernatural/magical phenomenon? Check
Chase scenes using various means of Transport - Check
Never leaving the hat behind - Check
Nazis - Check
Map Montage - Check
Little bits of light humor in tense situations - Check
Foreign orphan with an accent? - CHECK
Gets the girl - Check
As a finale, the now grumpy old man Indie gets to go on one final adventure and actually gets to keep the artifact for a change whilst finally learning what is really important in life - Living and loving.
A fitting finale to a legendary franchise and actor, that also managed to pay respectable homage to previous characters via cameos.
The ending is however bitter sweet. Despite all the things that make an Indiana Jones movie great, a few aspects did feel somewhat forced.
For one, the chemistry between Indie and his god-daughter was almost non existant. Helena (The god daughter) played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge unfortunately just felt too over the top. As much as I wanted too, I just couldnt find anything sympathetic about her. Even her relation to Jones was lame. Despite being a relatively original character with the potential to follow in Indies footsteps, her character just felt like it tried too hard. It felt like she was designed to be too much of everything. Badass, flirt, criminal, archaeologist, hero, strong independent woman, fighter etc - which inevitably just made her come across as an unlikeable and a "Disney narrative" (you all know what that means) as oppose to any of those listed above. Not to mention her subhuman feats of strength throughout the film were not just unreasonable, but ridiculous.
Scattered throughout the movie was a plethora of unimportant exaggerated characters, which nobody will nor should remember, as these served no significant contribution to backstory, plot progression, or emotion building. But rather included as an excuse for poor plot writing and attempt to highlight insignificant histories of the protagonists. (I'm looking at you Banderas).
A few honorable mentions -
How does a nazi survive a high speed impact of a steel bar to the face while riding on the side of a train at full speed?
How does a lil tuk tuk keep up with cars and motorcycles with regards to speed? Or survive a shotgun shot to the windshield without so much a scratch?
How does a kid whose never learnt to swim, miraculously not drown in a roaring cavernous river?
How does anyone leave a cave system with a single entrance, over a bridge that was destroyed going in?
How, in a chamber filled with methane gas, does one of two people gasp for air, choke and potentially die while the other, in the same chamber, is apparently immune to death while solving puzzles without so much as a clearing throat?
It was unfortunately the little things that made me as viewer want to hate this film. When a film studio doesn't take its viewers seriously, and are just out for a cash grab at the expense of a fanbase of a beloved franchise, Its understandable where a lot of the negativity for this movie comes from.
All things aside, the movie in in of itself is not terrible. Ford did his character justice reprising his role as Indiana Jones as good as one could imagine an 80 year old action star to be. Dare I say even do a good and respectible job of it?
Where the movie loses points were the forced and uncharismatic younger characters trying too hard to be strong, cool and independent coupled with bad acting as well as lazy plot holes in the movie
Despite it feeling like a cash grab at times, the movie does have its moments. If you can look past the forced narrative, bad acting and plot holes, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny still manages to capture and give off the sense of adventure, mystery and some of the magic of the original trilogy. Overall I would still recommend watching this movie. Either for the sake of completion, nostalgia or good old family movie night.
With that, a thank you and goodbye to the final chapter of the Ford- Indiana Jones Franchise; and an the same to Harrison Ford for giving us this legendary franchise and leaving it on a relatively high note.
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