The original Indiana Jones trilogy is one of my favourite movie trilogies. It was exciting, adventurous and just plain delightful to watch! The 4th entry which came out 19 years after the 3rd movie was unfortunately not as entertaining but it did have a solid ending that felt like a finale. So to my surprise, 15 years later we now have a 5th entry with an even OLDER Indy! Is this a step up from the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull? or is it another pointless sequel?
The first 20 minutes of this movie is a flashback sequence with a de-aged Harrison Ford. It is one of the best sequences in this movie. It gave me a lot of the vibes and energy of the original trilogy. The stunts, staging, and action were classic Indiana Jones. There are some other great action set pieces as well such as the parade sequence and the Tuk Tuk chase which were thoroughly entertaining. The cinematography is also a huge step up from the 4th entry. The movie is pleasant to look at for the majority of the runtime. I am also thankful that there isn’t as much CGI and greenscreen as it was in the previous entry. There is still CGI but it isn’t as terrible. Additionally, The legendary composer, John Williams, returns and continues to deliver an epic score in Dial of Destiny.
On that note, Harrison Ford still has it. He is still great as Indy and I don’t get the ‘phoning it in’ feel that I see with a lot of older actors. This Indy is not as upbeat as he was in the original trilogy and some would even say grumpy. I don’t particularly mind it and it was great seeing Harrison deliver some strong, poignant moments as the character. He still has the quip moments that you would expect and Harrison still manages to do it so naturally. Mads Mikkelson plays the Nazi antagonist and I love it. It is genuinely perfect casting. Boyd Holbrook plays the henchman and he is terrific at being so hateable which I enjoyed. Antonio Banderas also has a small role as a friend of Indy and I liked him a lot in his limited role to the point that I wish we got more of him. John Rhys-Davies and Karen Allen return as Sallah and Marion respectively. Both are just cameos but it was nice seeing them back in the final entry.
Sadly, this movie has plenty of issues. The de-aging is just very distracting. Visually, it looks all right but when Indy talks, it looks off. Even worse is the fact that the voice is still that of an 80-year-old Harrison Ford. It does not match the younger face which creates this jarring distraction. This entry is also the longest at 154 minutes and it is very noticeable. Every previous entry was 120 minutes or less and still successfully told a competent story. This one did not need to be that long and could easily cut 20-30 minutes off the runtime. There are so many slow scenes and padding that drag this movie down.
The most annoying aspect of this entry is the sidekick characters. Phoebe Waller-Bridge plays Helena Shaw, Indy’s goddaughter. She might be the most dislikable sidekick character in this franchise. Her character is written in a way where she is never truthful, or genuine and is always using Indy in some way for her agenda. She is just constantly at odds with Indy which makes her so annoying. She does get her character development but it comes right near the end of the movie which is way too late. Her development isn’t built up organically and just comes off as rather sudden. Even by the end, I am not sure if she even changed that much because her tone comes off as quite arrogant. There are also a lot of pointless characters that didn’t add much apart from making the film longer. There is a second sidekick who is a kid named Teddy. He isn’t remotely as enjoyable to watch as Short-Round and just felt like he was there so Helena had someone else to talk to. There is also a CIA agent character who added nothing to the plot but took screen time for some reason. Toby Jones plays Helena’s dad and is a friend to Indy but he was never in any previous movies. It just comes off as weird to introduce a new friend in a final entry.
Overall, this is another disappointing and pointless sequel. There are times when this is way better than Kingdom of the Crystal Skull but also many times when it isn’t. This entry was created to give a better send-off than Crystal Skull but I don’t think it was successful in that. It is still a fine satisfying ending but so was The Last Crusade and Crystal Skull as well. So this entry didn’t add anything. Still, it’s enjoyable enough of a watch but I hope for the love of God that this is TRULY the FINAL entry.
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