“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” UPS & DOWNS Review
Welcome all, this is the second review I’ve written in years. This time I’m going to try “Ups and Downs” for “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”! Also known as highs & lows and whatever else. Not very creative, sure, but it’s one step up from a basic review that I was doing…maybe.
I’m starting with “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” because the film was just released on Disney+. I gave it another chance and it’s an ok movie. Maybe even better if it wasn’t an Indiana Jones film. I’d give it a 6.8 overall.
I have high expectations for these and all fans should. We’ve seen the perfect ending with “The Last Crusade”. But they kept going and so shall we.
UPS
The long opening scene with a younger Indiana Jones was absolutely fantastic. I wanted the entire movie to stay in that time period. It’s about 15-20 minutes. I’d recommend watching that part, then turning the movie off and go watch Last Crusade again.
I liked the idea of someone trying to go back and time to change the outcome of a war. This bad guy wanted to kill Hitler, which was interesting and different from a Nazi big bad.
Mads Mikkelsen could have used better writing, but he was a solid villain. Except for the part where his head should’ve been ripped off and he was totally fine later.
Toby Jones was a very good addition, just a great actor overall. Wish he got more time, still good enough for an “up”.
Towards the end, after they time travel, the action and set looks great. So you get this awesome beginning and end, with garbage for about an hour and a half hour in the middle.
DOWNS
Phoebe Waller-Bridge is the co-star, she plays Indy’s Goddaughter Helena Shaw. One that we never heard of until now. After about 10 minutes of her, I was begging for Mutt to show up! And he was pretty awful, or I thought until I saw the Helena character.
There’s a part where Sallah (nice seeing him back) has this pep-talk with Indy. He wants to go on one last adventure with him and Indy’s like “nah”. It made me laugh out loud. So I’m not sure where this one belongs. Dumb as hell, yet funny in a way that wasn’t meant…ok it’s a down.
Everything in the middle of the movie sucks and/or is boring. Indie goes from badass 30-something to a miserable old man, while his Goddaughter runs the show.
Another for Phoebe, that’s how bad she is in this. Painfully unlikable, also bland and somehow annoyingly over the top at times. I could go on and on, she’s awful (the character, I don’t know the actress enough) in this and single-handedly drags the movie down.
Here’s another “so bad it became funny” moments. So there’s this kid Teddy, played by Ethann Isidore,who ends up working with Helena and Indy. He’s “street smart”, and so damn street smart that he can pilot a plane when needed.
The actor is 16 and I’m guessing the character is the same or younger. It was just silly as hell. Little kid chasing the villains thru a wormhole cause he’s THAT damn good.