In 2008, amid a strong trend towards nostalgia in Hollywood, we saw the disappointing Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in theaters. 15 years have passed and studies continue to be convinced that success lies in continuing to bring back the past. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Fate exists for this very reason and in this review we will see if this film at least manages to capture the spirit of the classic trilogy that made us fall in love with the character played by Harrison Ford.
This is the first film in the franchise not to be written by George Lucas or directed by Steven Spielberg. Behind the camera is director James Mangold. He already demonstrated with the great Logan who knows very well how to handle the old age of an iconic character and defeated by the world. Can he do for old Indy what he did for Wolverine?
It’s 1969 and as the United States celebrates astronauts who went to the moon, the old archaeologist finds himself lonely and bitter. When his goddaughter Helena reappears in search of the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient relic he found 25 years ago, he is inadvertently drawn into a new adventure. He now has to face a Nazi obsessed with changing the course of history and must leave his own past behind.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Fate seems to have all the necessary elements presented by the popular eighties trilogy. We have chases, world travels, a powerful relic inspired by true history, ancient tombs full of traps, Nazis getting beaten up and a crazy ending. But it doesn’t have the spirit of those films. James Mangold tries to imitate Spielberg’s style, but can’t find his spark.
The long introduction of this film takes us back years to the end of the second world war. A digitally rejuvenated Harrison Ford tries to stop the Nazis from bringing the Spear of Longinus to Hitler. There are moments where the hero’s face is completely convincing, but it continually falls into the eerie valley effect. This is a perfect metaphor for the rest of the film: tries his best to resemble what we had in the past, but doesn’t quite succeed.
The film has a good rhythm and is not boring, but it is not exciting either. There is nothing special about their chases, we don’t see particularly interesting traps or graves and although its ending is exaggerated and funny, many will feel that it “crosses the line” and that it does not fit with the world of Indiana Jones. All of this has been seen before and better.
Harrison Ford is a great actor and he does what he can with the script he was given, but the truth is that bitter Indy is boring. This isn’t a case like The Last Jedi, in which Luke Skywalker was deconstructed to deliver a big message about the Jedi Order and the state of the franchise. The protagonist of The Dial of Fate is clinging to the past in the same way that the villain Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) is clinging to Nazism. But the movie isn’t clever enough to draw a parallel between the two. The irony is that a film as attached to the past as this one has as its message that “we must let things go.”
It can be argued that the true protagonist of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Fate is Helena Taylor, brilliantly played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag). She’s a different kind of archaeologist, she’s more interested in money than artifact preservation. She reminds us a lot of Nathan Drake – more like Chloe Frazer – from the Uncharted video games: she is daring, flirtatious, teasing and definitely a thief.. The film is full of life and smiles at the moments when Dr. Jones threatens to make it sad and desolate. For a moment it seems that the film wants Indy to pass the torch to her to become the main character in her own film series, but we don’t think that was the goal.
We’re also very happy to see Mads Mikkelsen on screen, but the villain he plays is too generic. We’ve seen him do a lot more in iconic past roles of his. Antonio Banderas’ appearance is so brief and irrelevant that it might as well have been a cameo.
There is not much more to say about this movie. It’s not bad, but the most positive thing about it is that it’s competently directed. It handles an excellent rhythm so it doesn’t get boring despite its long duration, but it’s nothing special. Indiana Jones is a legendary name in the world of cinema and that is why we expected much more from this film.
Harrison Ford has said on multiple occasions that this is his last film in the franchise and that the character will die with him. We don’t know what Disney and Lucasfilm’s plans are for the future of this iconic adventurer, but perhaps it’s best to leave him in the past and focus on the good times we spent watching him beat up Nazis. Let’s long for the past, but let’s not try to recreate it because it will never be the same.
Indiana Jones and the dial of fate
