Anthony's Film Review - Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)

The final Indiana Jones movie with Harrison Ford is lots of fun as expected...

Computer-generated imagery has come a long way. One amazing new thing that CGI can do is to bring back a fictional character even if the actor playing that character is old or deceased. I can think of two examples, both in the Star Wars universe. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story features a slightly younger version of Grand Moff Tarkin, a character in Star Wars: A New Hope played by Peter Cushing, thanks to CGI superimposing Cushing's face (with his estate's permission) onto another actor. Also, in the Disney+ series The Mandalorian, Luke Skywalker makes a surprise appearance. Because that new show is set shortly after Return of the Jedi released in 1983, CGI was used to place the young Skywalker's face onto the face of the aging Mark Hamill reprising his role. The result is astounding.

This brings us to another Lucasfilm production: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. The first segment of the movie is an extended prologue set during World War II. Thanks to actor doubles and special effects with Harrison Ford's face, Indy appears as young as he was back in the first three Indy movies. And I'm not talking about one brief glimpse or shot of a young Indy. This is a long segment that features Indy in plenty of exciting action moments. When you watch this for a while, you can't help but feel that you're watching a new Indiana Jones movie that is just like the old ones. Theoretically, the entirety of Dial of Destiny could be set in the early 20th century with a CGI-faced Harrison Ford being a young Indy all the way through.

But given that the fourth Indy movie advanced the fictional timeline of the series by two decades and that Harrison Ford was approaching 80 years of age at the time of filming, it would actually not be appropriate to have Dial of Destiny be only about a young Indy. After the prologue sequence, we are taken to the late 1960s when Indy is on the verge of retirement from his job as an archaeology professor. However, his past come back to inconvenience him. Indy's goddaughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) is seeking the remaining missing piece of the Dial of Destiny. So is a Nazi physicist (Mads Mikkelsen) whom Indy encountered decades before. All of a sudden, Indiana Jones is thrown into another race for a legendary artifact that can be destructive in the wrong hands.

The movie essentially follows the Indiana Jones movie formula and does so quite well. We in the audience follow the trail of the known piece of the Dial of Destiny as well as clues ultimately leading to the remaining piece. We also wonder who is on whose side, especially as Helena is someone who is both familiar to Indy and possibly devious and greedy. The story is done nicely and will surely keep you engaged. As for the action, that's pretty good, too. There are vehicle chases and hand-to-hand combat sequences, including some exciting action on a moving train in the prologue sequence. No disappointment there, either.

I want to focus a little more on the one element of the Indiana Jones formula that I thought was most interesting here. I'm talking about the full revelations about the film's central archaeological mystery. As expected, this Indiana Jones film does eventually show what the Dial of Destiny does. The events associated with that are quite interesting to say the least. This isn't one of those letdown sequences where I groan because I've already seen it done before in the series. On the contrary, what happens in the climax is quite new and original, as well as appropriate for Harrison Ford's final Indiana Jones movie. If I had to pick my favorite part of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, it would be its climax.

And that's where I'll leave it. Is Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny the greatest movie of the series? No. Does it come close? Sure, in my opinion at least. I had a lot of fun watching it. In addition, I think this is a nice way to wrap up Harrison Ford's work as Indiana Jones. The finale may not be the grandest or most celebratory way to pay tribute to the actor and the character, but at least it does say farewell meaningfully enough. Across 42 years, Harrison Ford has played the role of a lifetime.

Anthony's Rating:

For more information about Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, visit the Internet Movie Database.