Not Great, But Not Bad: In Review Of Indiana Jones The Dial Of Destiny
The man with the felt crown returns with Indiana Jones and the Dial Of Destiny directed by James Mangold; the mind behind many of the Wolverine films. Here, a retiring Indiana (Harrison Ford) finds himself on the road again with his God-daughter Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) and Teddy (Ethann Isidore) – a kid that she… found? It is explained that she found him while he was trying to steal her purse and they stuck together since then, for reasons unexplained. The plot follows the three trying to stop Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) from returning to the past to ensure that Germany claim victory in WWII.
In terms of the narrative ark, it was very well paced as there were logical steps taken while building up to the climax of the film; this created an effective flow to the film. An example of this being when the protagonist’s group attempted to find the second piece of the dial underwater. They achieved this but were then intercepted by the antagonists. However, Helena used her nature to strike a deal that allowed the protagonists to escape. Here, the screenwriter is using what we know about the character effectively in order to make it engaging without sacrificing logic and believability. However, despite the ample amount of praise here, the narrative overall wasn’t that good, but neither was it bad. While watching there was nothing pointing towards the film being stale or repetitive, so what was causing this feeling? Perhaps the answer can be found within the series itself and perhaps may be something that has also befallen upon some of the films in the Batman series and many others like it. This being that once you have watched one of these films, you have watched them all. This can be seen when comparing The Dial Of Destiny and The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, especially when focussing on a specific scene from both films. This scene being when Jones and Mutt Williams (Shia Labeouf) are talking in a café in The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull. The dialogue details a crystal skull and a reason to find it which is then finished by Mutt trying to convince Jones to aid him in finding it with a riddle that Mutt found. This seems rather similar to when Jones is in a bar and Helena walks in and states that there is a dial that she must find which is then followed by her convincing Jones to aid her in finding it. The similarities between these films also doesn’t end there as the endings, while trying to avoid spoilers, conclude in the antagonist attaining the object but they end up deceased because of the object instead of them gaining something from it. However, it could be that this is why we enjoy series of films, because we know what we are getting ourselves into. It’s the enjoyment of the iconography and the characters as all these films involve the character of Indiana Jones, an expertly crafted, well-loved anti-hero.
Of course, all of this must be captured with a camera and a lens, and it was very nicely done. The Arri Alexa Lf camera made for some great camera work when combined with the 60s filter which seemed to give the film a modern 60s look. However, during the opening scene, CGI is used to create a younger looking Harrison Ford to fit with the scene that is set in the past. However, it wasn’t implemented very well but the scene doesn’t rely on CGI too much, so this issue didn’t balloon into anything larger.
Overall, I thought that this film was fine, nothing special, but it was fine. Just your typical Hollywood narrative ark and Hollywood end, making a fine addition to the Indiana Jones series.
