Mini Review #74: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) (Patreon)

Ya know, I went into this movie hopeful that I would get a fun Indiana Jones film to cap off Harrison Ford's run as the titular character. While I may not be the biggest Indiana Jones fan out there, I do really enjoy the first 3 movies (and have seen the 4th but only once) and I used to watch the second one in particular quite a bit as a kid. I knew the reviews for this movie were very mixed but I had to know whether I liked it or not...

For me, this movie just felt very long and boring. While there were some great moments and a few that really felt like Indiana Jones, something about how the film was paced, written, and directed just felt off. The action sequences felt slow and I felt little stakes in them through the over reliance of CGI. I understand that Harrison Ford can't do the things he used to, but this issue made it so that almost everything about action sequence were just fake green screen composites rather than real action set pieces. While some of the CGI in the film is great (young Harrison Ford especially was insane), this movie already holds up less than the first 3 films. The story about the dial of destiny and time travel was intriguing at first, but it sort of devolved into a fetch quest which felt tedious at best. I really enjoyed the last half of the third act though as finally, the movie delivered on what it promised us with the premise.

Some good things I liked about the film was the score by John Williams who I can't believe is making music still. Harrison Ford of course does a really good job as Indiana Jones but his limitations definitely do show in the film. Some of the shots looked pretty and there were some cool moments involving a couple of planes.

So yeah, guess I'm just feeling a little disappointed that's all. Oh well, at least we still got those 3 originals to watch!!