Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)

A man's eyes are shielded from the light by shadow and the brim of his hat
Cover art for the movie Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
About the movie
  • Director: James Mangold
  • Starring: Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen
  • Yes or no?: Yes
  • Links: on Letterboxd, IMDb page
Other reviews:

This fit right in with the rest of the four sequels. After Raiders of the Lost Ark, these movies were fun and ultimately fine. I wasn’t watching to see great stories told in important ways. I was watching to see cool action and hopefully have a fun time following Indy on his quests. The four sequels handled that just fine.

I don’t have a ton to say about this move except that I loved Phoebe Waller-Bridge in it. She belongs on more screens and in more people’s movies.

Toby Jones was also awesome. That guy rules.

I had heard they did a nice job with the de-aging and CGI, but man do I disagree with that. The opening sequence on the train looked phony. It just did. Harrison Ford’s face was not far enough removed from The Polar Express, and the long shot of the train where he walks along it was horrible. Granted, that was only for a couple seconds. But the de-aging was bad enough that I say just don’t do it.

That can be forgotten, though. So I forgot it while I enjoyed the rest of what should (?) be the last one of these. Which brings me to my last point. The franchise was a great one with an incredible lead character played pretty much perfectly by a guy perfectly suited to the role. I’m not sure I’ll miss Indiana Jones, since I can watch the 10/10 Raiders of the Lost Ark anytime I like, plus he was mostly gone before Kingdom of the Crystal Skull showed up. But I do like the guy. I’m very happy to have experienced this series of movies as I did.