More than 40 years after “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” Indiana Jones is still raiding lost arks, but his fifth big screen go-round, “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” feels more like an homage to Indiana Jones than a proper Indy adventure.
Make no mistake, you can feel the giddy enthusiasm of director James Mangold (“Ford v Ferrari”) radiating on-screen. He probably never thought he’d get the chance to make an Indiana Jones movie, and why would he? The previous entries in the series were all helmed by one man, Steven Spielberg.
So while it’s less cringe-inducing than 2008’s clunky “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” — there are no nuclear fridge moments here, thankfully — “Dial of Destiny” is an unnecessary addendum to the Jones saga, simultaneously action-packed and lacking in any genuine thrills. It’s time for Indy to hang up his leather jacket, hat and whip for good.
The most disconcerting moments come early on, as a digitally (and distractingly) de-aged Harrison Ford returns to the iconic role. The rugged archaeologist is chasing down Nazis in the closing days of WWII, but it’s hard to see past Ford’s face, which looks like he’s being haunted, in real time, by a ghost of his earlier self.
Similar de-aging technology was employed to shave years off of Robert De Niro in “The Irishman,” and while it can be a handy storytelling tool, the technology isn’t yet where it needs to be, and it has the effect of looking like something out of a Wayans Brothers comedy. You can’t fake real, which is something archaeologists should know better than most.
The story flash-forwards 25 years to a properly aged Indy — Ford turns 81 next month, though he doesn’t look a day over 72 — who is living in New York in 1969, teaching classes at Hunter College and bah-humbugging the younger generation. That’s when Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) appears in his class and rattles off all the answers the young whipper snappers can’t be bothered to raise their hands for.
Turns out Helena is a bit of a blast from the past: she’s Indy’s goddaughter — they haven’t seen each other in nearly 20 years — and she’s on a mission to track down an ancient contraption that dates back to early B.C. and has the ability to send ripples through the space-time continuum. This is the object of fascination the movie’s good guys (Indy, Helena) and bad guys (Mads Mikkelsen plays Nazi bad apple Jürgen Voller, Boyd Holbrook is Klaber, Jürgen’s right-hand man) spend all their time obsessing over and trying to obtain for themselves. The race is on!
The mission to track down this mythical object, the Dial of Destiny of the title, takes Indy and Helena to the skies, to the seas, to foreign lands and through ancient caves, because what would an Indiana Jones adventure be without some ancient cave dwelling? And while the pieces are there, the magic is missing, and “Dial of Destiny” never feels vibrant or urgent in the now. Its best sequences simply recall past glories rather than creating new ones.
The cast, for its part, delivers: Waller-Bridge (“Fleabag”) makes a wily sidekick and Mikkelsen and Holbrook are a convincing pair of baddies. (The Nazi foe to Indiana Jones is just one of the many roles Mikkelsen was born to play.) Even Antonio Banderas shows up as an old pal of Indy’s who charters him a boat, in a part so unexpected he’ll have you asking, “wait a minute, is that Antonio Banderas?” (At least that was my experience.)
Indiana Jones, both the character and the series, is a pure throwback, a hero to a world that existed before Dom Toretto or Tony Stark started cashing studio checks. But rather than coming around to teach the new dogs some old tricks, Indy feels tethered to the past, and “Dial of Destiny’s” action lacks the tactile, practical thrills the series’ early chapters delivered in droves. (As wonky as the de-aging technology is on Ford’s face, the surrounding VFX during the opening train sequence is worse.)
Where “Temple of Doom” and “Last Crusade” delivered nostalgia wrapped in a blanket of modern effects, “Dial of Destiny” just throws back to the days of “Temple of Doom” and “Last Crusade,” when Indy was at the top of the moviegoing heap. (And it’s best not to mention some of the storytelling leaps the script takes in its final act.)
“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” is far from a washout, and there’s something comforting about seeing Ford back in Indiana’s old duds and hearing John Williams’ still-stirring score. But no one’s going to confuse this with the best Indy adventures, and the overlong chase for the object of the day — the epidemic of action movies stretching past the two and-a-half hour mark needs to stop — leaves everything feeling a bit dusty. This time around, Indy himself is an artifact.
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‘INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY’
Grade: C
MPA rating: PG-13 (for sequences of violence and action, language and smoking)
Running time: 2:34
How to watch: in theaters
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