Indiana Jones and the Dial Of Destiny Review – The Final Adventure of an Elderly Man

Basic information:

• Genre: action, adventure
• Duration: 2h 34min
• Release year: 2023
• Age limit: 13

Indy is back for the last time. 15 years have passed since the previous movie, and this movie has also been filmed for several years. Did the production of several years pay off or is Indiana Jones an old thing? There are things in the review that I would personally consider spoilers, but I’ll try to stay on a general level anyway.

Story

The story begins in the past when the Nazis catch Indy for “spying”. Indy was going to find an ancient spear to put it in the museum, but after the hassle with the Nazis, an object called Antikythera’s dial turns out to be more interesting. This value is also noted by Dr. Voller, who works on the side of the Nazis. At the end of the beginning events, Indy and his sidekick Basil get hold of the dial and go home.

Moving on to the present day and the dial causes problems again. Basil was driven crazy by it and other parties are also very interested in it. Basil’s daughter and Indy’s goddaughter Helena unexpectedly comes to the city at the time of Indy’s retirement – naturally interested in the dial. In the end, the CIA and Nazi-doctor Voller are also present, and Indy becomes a murder suspect. That’s where the adventure starts.

The story by itself is by no means very amazing, and is pretty basic Indiana Jones movie. This is not really a bad thing, because Indiana Jones has never offered the most amazing stories in the world. Story goes pretty much in safe waters and nothing super surprising happens. Perhaps more surprising things happen in the final act of the movie, but this is also a pattern familiar to the fans of previous movies.

The film has a really wide and memorable cast of characters. Everyone is very personable and there are practically no boring characters. The film also contains references to characters from previous films, and some are even included in the film. I didn’t remember these characters myself though, because I haven’t watched the old movies again for a long time.

In terms of the characters, there is also criticism. Indy has aged rapidly, which is understandable, but the aging clearly affected Ford’s acting and Indy’s character in a negative way, in my opinion. The character doesn’t do any of the wildest stunts in the world and his old tricks have been reduced to a minimum. For example, the whip is used maybe three times. In addition, Indy’s sidekick character, the godchild Helena, is a really annoying character for my taste. Her personality triggers me and she’s almost more of a lead role in places than Indy. This is my personal opinion, though, and I’ve already read that many others like her.

The villain of the film, the Nazi doctor Voller, is a really good antagonist in my opinion. He’s not a traditional supervillain who can do anything and is the world’s worst human monster. He is really smart and cruel, but also a very pathetic case in places. In the opening scene, for example, he gets hit in the face on the roof of the train by a wooden pole from the side of the track. I was impressed by his script, although maybe his story wasn’t so impressive in the end.

The characters and achievements of the fourth film were immediately nullified in the opening meters of the film, which pissed me off. Indy’s son and wife are conveniently written out of the movie. I understand that this is sometimes done for practical reasons, but they were not written out in a very clever way. And from what I heard, the son was written out because he wasn’t liked in the fourth movie. I think this is a really stupid reason to remove a character, because if it was written in the series in the first place, the writers should stand behind the characters they wrote.

Music

Music has a big impact in the film. The music choices highlight the scenes brilliantly. The action scenes have very fast-paced tracks and even in the slower scenes there is always something playing in the background. The music causes nostalgia to the viewer, as you sometimes hear familiar songs from previous films and, of course, the famous Indiana Jones theme song.

Viewing experience

The movie really has the atmosphere of the old Indiana Jones movies. There is a lot of action, adventures around the world and things are not always taken too seriously because there is also humor. I am really happy about this, because as far as I remember, the fourth part of the movie series was not very good in this area. While Indy as a character may not be the same as before, the overall feel is reminiscent of the old movies.

The movie is long and there were many scenes that could have been shortened. Many action scenes take a really long time. This is a bit of a double-edged criticism, because I never got bored while watching the movie. Overall, the movie was a really pleasant viewing experience. Still, in general, I don’t appreciate unnecessarily prolonged movies if basically nothing is achieved by this.

Summary

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is a really good ending to the film series. That is, ff the series is really ending here. The spirit of the Indiana Jones movies has been preserved honorably and the viewing experience is really pleasant, down to the music choices and the script of the cast of characters. However, points are lowered by the film’s unnecessarily long duration, the cancellation of the events of the fourth film and character-specific criticisms.