Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Movie Review

I enjoyed watching the newest Indiana Jones adventure almost as much as any other adventure film. Well, maybe I should say I didn’t dislike it. Mostly because I thought I’d never see the character again.

In the film’s beginning, exceptionally well-done CGI and set decoration take us back years. They made me remember watching “Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark” for the first time as if it was yesterday. I loved that movie and the characters so much that the thought of a thrilling new quest with Indiana Jones at the helm excited me.

Another big reason to want to see this music is Composer John Williams. He just scored Spielberg’s movie “The Fabelmans,” released in November of 2022 but then announced that his last film would be Spielberg’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” They make such a good pair. Williams is also going to concentrate on composing concert music. Maybe you can see him live.

Spielberg had planned to direct “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” but the task was given to James Mangold, who also co-wrote the film. If you’re not entirely familiar with the name, you should be. Mangold made “Girl, Interrupted,” “Identity,” “Walk the Line,” and “3:10 to Yuma.” Spielberg did stay on as executive producer with George Lucas, the other visionary of this enterprise. Producing is also Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall.

The movie has its problems. The biggest is it’s just way too long, coming in at two hours and twenty-four minutes. When it opens, we’re in the 40s amongst a plethora of Nazis who have stolen goods, one being a lance, The Holy Lance of Longinus, that is supposed to have blood on it, belonging to Christ.

We’re on a train and there are explosions aplenty as Indy, de-aged and fun to watch, does what he’s best at and attempts to stop those bad guys. As you know from before, he’s not fond of Nazis. Watching him go after them is electric, but the scene goes on way too long.

He and Baz (Toby Jones) are also looking for something called the Antikythera. They have to stop the Nazis from stealing this precious device. It’s an instrument created by Archimedes a few thousand years ago, if you can imagine.

It’s an orrery, which is a mechanical model of the Solar System that illustrates or predicts the relative positions and motions of the planets. It’s, for all intense and purposes, what they would have called their version of a computer that could forecast astronomical positions and eclipses decades in advance.

We’ve seen a scene in almost every action film of this type. Someone tries to grab a box that’s held onto by skeletal hands. Observing this even for even a moment is getting so old. Let’s retire it, please!

Indy believes what they have is a fake but fights for it anyway. Phoebe Waller-Bridge plays Basil’s daughter Helena Shaw who also wants Antikythera. Her yearning for it is purely monetary, as she can auction it to the highest bidder and make enough to live on for the rest of her days. Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) is also interested in the Dial and is willing to die to try and obtain it. He has half of it and must find the other half. If he can get his hands on both pieces, he can go back, succeed where Hitler failed and win the war.

Indy and Helena work together to get the dial whole again. Some hints say Helena could be the next Indy, but that’s for you to decipher. If she’s willing to sell something as valuable as the Antikythera that can make time travel possible, maybe she isn’t worthy.

The movie gives you what you want. Mads is a great bad guy. There are moments of exhaustive action, but the filmmakers only try and make Indy do as much as someone his age could do. It’s good that his age is addressed as it should have been. In an Indian Jones film, you want what you got in the past. This could hurt the film some, your recollection of that past. It may cause you, unfortunately, a bit of boredom, wanting more.

Despite that, I’ll let you discover some unforeseen sweetness that proves an eighty-year-old Indy still has it with the women. That may win you over. Hopefully, he does for most audiences, too.

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