Preamble

For once, I’m having a hard time writing a preamble. What do you say after being away for some time? No doubt, the formula is as well known as the infamous YouTuber apology video. Dial of Destiny hit UK shores yesterday, so, it’s been nice to feel ahead of the curve for once. Have you had a chance to see Indy’s latest adventure? Let me know in the comments below.

Review

As the famous saying goes, “If adventure has a name, it must be Indiana Jones.” The Saturday matinee serial-inspired character has delighted moviegoers since 1981 with a relatable humanity that nostalgically calls back to a simpler time. It’s these twin qualities that the franchise’s fifth entry, Dial of Destiny attempts to grapple with. Despite being less thrilling in its adventurous aspects, Destiny feels like the most thematically rich and interesting entry in the series.

Dial of Destiny opens in 1944 when Indy (Harrison Ford) is on the hunt for a stolen artifact, known as the Lance of Longinus (aka the Holy Lance). Whilst being held prisoner by the Nazis, the famed archaeologist finds that treasure is a fake. However, he soon hears murmurs of a deadlier item by Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen). The title object was invented by Archmedius and has the potential to locate fissures in time. After rescuing his colleague, Basil Shaw (Toby Jones) and retrieving the item, the pair make it home safely. In the present day (1969 on the eve of the Moon Landing), Indy is visited by his Goddaughter, Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) whose fascination with her father’s work will bring the aged professor out of retirement.

Much like the Force Awakens, Dial of Destiny feels like an affectionate mix tape of prior instalments. The opening prologue involving a CGI de-aged Harrison Ford as a younger incarnation of the character feels like a riff on the opening from The Last Crusade. And like that film, there’s also a central familial pairing. In that film, it was between Indy and his father, Henry Jones Sr (Sean Connery), which was a post-modern acknowledgement of the close ties the Bond and Indy franchises have had, whilst also using the relationship to depict the idea of obsession and letting go.

In Dial of Destiny, the pairing is between Indy and his goddaughter, Helena. The estranged pair is a fascinating parallel of one another, with Helena being akin to a dark mirror for what Indy could have been. She’s a morally duplicitous manifestation of Indy’s “Fortune and Glory” mantra from Temple of Doom made flesh. And she also exists as a meta-commentary on Indy’s heroic and adventurous persona.

In this way, one of the main themes of the movie is how Indy (in a sense) has been lost in his time due to personal circumstances and the weight of modern history (literally bearing down on him). And through an adventure with a sceptical person of his persona, he’s built back up as someone who feels relevant in his time again (even if it’s just through the ones he holds dear).

As a metaphor for franchise revival, this is quite interesting even if it lacks the poignancy of recent reboot efforts such as The Matrix Resurrections. In fact, director and co-screenwriter, James Mangold, has tackled this fare before with much more weight in The Wolverine (an exploration of mortality in superhero fiction) and the Unforgiven-styled curtain call for Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine (Logan).

Despite this, I at least appreciated the approach. There’s even an admirable attempt to juxtapose Indy and the antagonist, Voller. Like Indy, Voller is lost in time but wishes to correct the mistakes of his past. He also had a hand in the Moon Landing, which is the current history that Indy feels displaced by (in an existential sense). The ironies that exist in both men attempting to change history and their egos in presuming to do so were fascinating to witness. Also, Mikkelsen’s moments of humanity in the third act were quite moving.

Harrison Ford does not miss a beat in his return as the title character. His line readings still hold the same charm and bite, but sometimes carry the weariness of his plight and age. And Waller-Bridge’s mischievous and sardonic charm is a welcome addition to the franchise.

Dial of Destiny’s central problem comes from its more adventurous aspects often feeling less exhilarating than they should. This is mostly down to the sheer abundance of exposition that ruins many sequences. One early on is when Indy and Helena are having a conversation in an archive section whilst being hunted by agents. The potential Hitchcockian tension is marred by McGuffin explanation (for what feels like the 5th time). Even bonding moments where characters are shouting at one another during action sequences feel too busy to appreciate.

Fortunately, Destiny finds its footing in an impressive third act that was like watching a big-budget episode of Horrible History, with its sense of scale and imagination (courtesy of some prolonged use of long and aerial shots). Mangold’s other instances of good filmmaking are much more subtle, such as a Film noir styled reveal of a Nazi solider in the opening train action sequence or the use of close-ups in the second act encounter between Indy and Voller, which is edited and pitched as though it’s a tense and prolonged fencing match.

In the final score of his career, John Williams delivers some stunning music for Dial of Destiny. The standout is Helena’s theme that’s like a searching piece of music for a character who has often stumbled through life (via the use of strings and low piano notes). In a film, where quite a few standard tenants of the franchise fell flat, Williams’s score enlivens the movie with a sensitivity and atmospheric flair.