[Movie Review] Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)
Plot Summary: Archaeologist Indiana Jones races against time to retrieve a legendary artifact that can change the course of history.
Director: James Mangold
Writers: Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth, and David Koepp
Runtime: 2 hours 34 mins
Main Cast:
- Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones
- Phoebe Waller-Bridge as Helena
- Antonio Banderas as Renaldo
- Karen Allen as Marion
- John Rhys-Davies as Sallah
- Toby Jones as Basil Shaw
- Mads Mikkelson as Dr. Voller
Review by: Mia
Forty-two years after the release of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones remains a beloved franchise capable of fresh challenges and growth for the namesake main character. Many anticipated the proclaimed final installation of the franchise in 2023, excited to see how the story, developed by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg and contributed to by accomplished writers such as David Koepp, would conclude.
In Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, we once again face fascism and greed from the noble perspective of dedicated archaeology. The movie starts by reminding us of Indiana Jones’ past feats, showing him young and de-aged and facing Nazis in a familiar fortress battle. With the help of his fellow archaeologist and friend, Basil Shaw (Toby Jones), Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) acquires half of the Antikythera device, a mythological device capable of time meteorology. The device piece is on its way to be offered to Hitler, who as usual has his forces dedicated to discovering the greatest weaponized powers the world has to offer, scientific or supernatural. Indiana Jones thwarts the Nazi dream another day and ends up the protector of the device until the day he retires from academia decades later.
On the day he retires, his goddaughter—Helena Shaw (played by Phoebe Walter-Bridge)— appears wanting to know the fate of the device that her father had helped Jones to acquire. Basil Shaw spent years studying and identifying its purpose and researching the location of its other half. Through mischief and deception, she steals the half that Jones protects and helps to frame him for the murder of bystanders in the process. Indiana Jones finds himself forced into another “adventure,” where he gets to know the life of Helena and her partner in crime, Teddy (Ethan Isidore). They journey across the globe tracking down clues, artifacts, and each other in order to prove the theories of Basil Shaw and thwart the Nazi survivor and villain Dr. Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) as he gears up to revive the Nazi a creative and time-bending coup conspiracy.
True to the franchise, The Dial of Destiny combines action chases, ingenious improvisation, snarky dialogue, and flawed characters to invest its audience in yet another science fiction fantasy. Indiana Jones once again questions what belief is and what is fact while struggling with his own life’s trajectory as he nears his own end times. Facing the end of loving relationships and life itself doesn’t stop Indiana Jones from saving priceless artifacts from being sold in black market auctions or used by fascist or capitalist megalomaniacs. The Dial of Destiny strives to hold a mirror up to the years that have passed and made an impressively agile archaeologist and bachelor into a tired and defeated victim of time. Its charm is in how it shows an old man facing time head on and still being key to saving the world many times over.
If you watched the Indiana Jones franchise at all in the past forty years, you will enjoy this installation as well. The Dial of Destiny manages to continue the themes and growth of characters we have known and loved since Raiders of the Lost Ark while also proving that age is not what defeats us, leaving ourselves behind is. There are a few plot holes in the character development of supporting characters such as Helena Shaw and Renaldo (played by Antonio Banderas), but the characters make satisfactory plot devices in showing us what life is like for Indiana Jones in the year Americans land on the moon.
Summary
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny combines nostalgia with seasoned storytelling. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg dreamed of an American Bond film without all the hardware and even in 2023, Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones provides. He has charm, he has humanity, and he has plot armor. More importantly, he has the self-awareness to take a break and acknowledge how his old bones have settled after decades of exploring and Nazi warfare. I take away points for the lack of depth in supporting characters, the CGI mishaps in some of the scenery and extra character moments, and for the unanswered questions at the end of the film, but ultimately the story provides you with a worthy chapter in Indiana Jones’ adventures that stands up the rest of the franchise. The de-aging used to give us young Indiana is satisfying and important for setting up the rest of the film. The time conundrum offered steers away from deep science fiction explanations and simply asks the audience to suspend disbelief long enough to enjoy the fated purpose of the Antikythera when made whole. You don’t fully understand what’s next for any of the characters at the end of the movie, which can be taken as either a compelling cliffhanger or a lack of resolution, but you do get the finality of Indiana Jones as life fully lived.
