INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY (2023)

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is the redemption attempt with this franchise. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was so bad that they needed to do all they could to save it. I'm convinced this movie only exists because the previous film was so bad that they needed to do what they can to restore the reputation built by those original three. But don't get it twisted, Dial of Destiny wasn't brilliant. It's a barely passable film and I think people are still flocking to the cinema with the expectation that this film is going to be brilliant when in actual fact its not. I think my rating for this film is skewed slightly because I thought Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was so bad, that in comparison this right here is a masterpiece, but when you just remember how good Raiders of the Lost Ark was, or The Last Crusade then this doesn't stand a chance.

The CGI wasn't good. Look it's better than the melting face in The Last Crusade, but come on, that was made 30 years ago so that gets a pass, it's 2023 now and you're telling me that's the best they can do with the CGI? The opening scene with young Harrison Ford just looked off, the voice and his face just didn't look right and it really stuck with me for the rest of the film. In Rogue One that did a great job of creating a young Carrie Fisher in that final scene, why couldn't they just do that again with Indiana Jones, and when they do do that and it doesn't look great, why can't they step in and go, 'well we gave it a shot and it didn't work' and then scrap the whole thing.

The story line was a lot better than the Crystal Skull film, it went back to that religious historical history rather than aliens, and although the timelines don't quite match up with the going back in time and going forward and so on, if you don't think about it too much it's fine. But I want to talk about the cast, because this is where they got something right, not everything, but something write, Mads Mikkelsen as the former Nazi who works for NASA, Jurgen Voller was brilliant, and it felt like the way he portrayed that character for the time that this film was set in was perfect.

The set designs were really good, the transition scenes were reminiscent of the older films with the dotted lines and the plane travelling along the map and that all just felt right. But it still didn't feel like an Indiana Jones film, It was a quick cash grab but ultimately just a reminder of how good these films were as opposed to how good they are today. I hope, pray and beg that they don't try and make a sixth film. Let's leave it at that, and remember the 1980s when Indiana Jones ruled the big screen.

Rating: 🍿🍿🍿