Find similar movies...

Stream it:

Amazon

iTunes

Own it:

	DVD
	Blu-ray

With: Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Antonio Banderas, Toby Jones, Ethann Bergua-Isidore, Karen Allen, John Rhys-Davies, Shaunette Renée Wilson, Thomas Kretschmann, Boyd Holbrook, Olivier Richters, Martin McDougall, Alaa Safi, Nasser Memarzia

Written by: Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth, David Koepp, James Mangold

Directed by: James Mangold

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sequences of violence and action, language and smoking

Running Time: 154

Date: 06/30/2023

IMDB

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)

3 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Raiders of the Lost Archimedes

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

This fifth and presumably final Indiana Jones adventure hits all the right beats and fully satisfies, with an understanding that this series has always been about more than just chases and fights.

As it begins, we flash back to the end of WWII, where Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) and his friend Basil (Toby Jones) are attempting to steal an ancient artifact from the Nazis. Instead they discover half of Archimedes's Antikythera mechanism. This mechanism, a dial, is said to bring untold power to whoever possesses it. Indy tangles with a sinister Nazi scientist, Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), and he and Basil escape with the dial.

Years later, in 1969 (complete with Beatles and Davie Bowie tunes), Dr. Jones is retiring from teaching, and he receives a visit from Basil's daughter, his own goddaughter, Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge). She wants to go looking for the dial, but Indy shows her that he has it.

Unfortunately, Helena has an ulterior motive; a group of henchmen burst in shooting, and she steals the dial and escapes. Indy realizes he has no choice but to set out on yet another adventure, to find Helena, to get his half of the dial back, and to prevent the newly re-surfaced Voller from getting his hands on both halves.

Directed by James Mangold, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny has some of the same flavor that he brought to his earlier movies about seasoned adventurers (3:10 to Yuma, Logan), and plenty of soul.

Star Ford, 80 at the time of the movie's release, is allowed to look and be his age (while climbing a stone wall in a cave, he complains about his aches and pains). And yet the stunts and action all feel appropriate, while still exciting. (Waller-Bridge holds her own as well, and needs no rescuing!) A pair of flashbacks that use de-aging digital technology to give us a "younger" Indy are nearly seamless as well.

One of the best things about all the Indy movies is that they revel in scenes in musty old libraries or storage rooms, and delight in the piecing together of thousand-year-old puzzles, and this one is no different. These beats provide rests between chases, and build the characters as well. (And even though Mangold has gone long with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, 154 minutes, the pacing feels right.)

Finally, more so than any other franchise, we get the sense of just who Indiana Jones is here, what his history is, how he feels about things. Now that his story is well and truly told, he's still our hero, but we feel like a part of his family.