INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESITNY

Indiana Jones AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.

I like the films I do. They are a bank holiday staple and Sunday hungover fair, together with some Bond chances on ITV2 or a marvel on the BBC in the middle of the night. But I don’t think I’ve ever been enamoured with Indy. I remember seeing Last Crusade in the cinema with my dad, one of our last trips together before I started going alone. Ironically of the films, that’s the one I revisit the most, because since it became the two of us, there’s a lot of father and son in there, I am growing to admit. But this, I hope, the final instalment, gives a decent stab at the greatest hits while avoiding the stale aftertaste of contrivance that fouled the Crystal Skull.

The film’s start takes us back to WW2, and the freak of chance that is survival in the war gives us a fantastic prelude that hits the tone of humour and tension that is a staple of the series. We watch Indy punch Nazis in a church, on a train, and in a river. We watch him punch Nazis in the kitchen, in a suit and with a briefcase. Indiana Jones is punching Nazis because this film has learned to a degree, the missteps of other Indian films. Stick to punching Nazis because any other group, especially when poorly researched, is just punching down.

It’s a greyer film, and we do get some great moments of the reality of age. Gone the hat and whip, and now an old man in a vest and baseball bat screaming at the pesky kids downstairs for waking him in the middle of the morning. Life has moved on around him with the space programme. Until Helena Shaw, ably played by Phoebe, Waller-bridge comes in and appeals to the one last fight for our archaeologist hero.

On one level, we have the usual heists and scrapes, and out-of-their-league swift turns of opportunity and badinage, we often get in these films. Grounding it in the story and legends of Archemedies this time does help significantly. Temple of Doom and the Kai yaga, I have been looking very stiffly at you, not to mention the ufologists of crystal boredom. The nazis are not so much paper thin as NFT in-depth, though, and it does feel like an AI wrote their lines.
As a nuisance, it seems the only role for Asians is as taxi drivers or scimitar wielders, so again, the temple of doom, I’m looking at you. The most problematic is short round 2.0 in Teddy Kumar. A poorly written part that gives little opportunity for Ethann Isidore and some ruthless decisions by the character that comes out of nowhere and really put me off.

Helena, though, is more than a game. This is not an action hero any more than Indy. The central interplay at the heart of these films is the history and fascination with the past. While ensuring she obviously has one other owner. Phoebe waller bridge’s turn and inclusion are validated with a turn as capable and perceptive, with enough foibles and fallible to distance this from the final girl banality of prime Lara Croft. This is a definite course correction for her with Lucasfilm, given her last role was an unconventional fuckbot who would die for her owner and had a scatty sense of direction. So its a plus

So with some length in an unnecessary boat trip, we get a lot of character, a decent fist of a send-off for our favourites, and I think Indy fans and pursuits will get a pure Indy sense. For the rest of us. A suitable actioner, but as I often judge films now. If you have Disney Plus. It’s not worth the trip.

It’s essential to revisit the past at times. But you don’t have to live in it