From 6/15/2023 press screening:
Harrison Ford (“Enders Game") returns to his final role as Indiana Jones, archaeology professor-adventurer, globe-trotting and treasure-hunting around the world. Famous composer John Williams is also back for the last time with his iconic score. Very few scores are as remarkably memorable as Williams' creations, spanning across movies that define pop culture across generations.
Opening scenes in 1944 where a de-aged Ford mounts a vigorous escape from the Nazis is so convincing, almost making you think that the aging actor could play the titular action hero forever.
From a motorcycle chase through the mountain range, then onboard a wrecking locomotive train, to the top of the train running, fighting, nearly falling and disappearing into the misty air, Indy literally nearly loses his head at least a few times.
Indy and his colleague, Basil Shaw (Toby Jones), are there to obtain a mysterious artifact from ancient times, preventing it from falling into the wrong hand, Nazi scientist Jurgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen). The artifact is a time dial, some kind of a time machine, which has been split into two pieces. Indy's sprints across the globe to prevent the dial pieces to be found and merged. Predictably, this won't be the last time we see Jurgen.
The timeline jumps to 1969, New York, where a desolate Indy is retiring from his college teaching career. His life is much different now, after tragedy struck in the family. Indy's goddaughter (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), Basil's daughter, Helena Shaw, shows up and causes a mess, as the half piece of the dial is found, and baddies are in pursuit. Indy can't hang up his hat and whip yet. He grabs a horse from a police patrolling a festive national parade celebrating moonlanding and races through the streets on a horseback, narrowly escaping through subway tunnels and rail tracks.
Helena, even as a student of archaeology, is all about money though, wanting to auction the time dial to the highest bidder. She also owes a lot of money to some bad guys, which leads her and Indy to Morocco, zig-zagging through market alleys on a tuk-tuk, trying to evade their pursuers, who want the dial.
Sailing into the Mediterranean sea and deep diving into the ocean floor, Indy and intrepid Helena dig up a submerged artifact. They are met again by the bad guys on the boat. A dynamite escape later, a hidden map leads them to old caves and tombs in Italy, where they hunt for the other half piece of the dial.
With a thin storyline, this is nonstop, one extended action set piece after another. It gets a bit tedious, but is never boring. Swarming eels, crawling scorpions and buried skeletons make their appearance.
It goes without saying that you must dial up the suspension of disbelief. In a time setting where the story is set, there is no instant connectivity; no cell phone, let alone smartphone, and no modern navigation system, yet the bad guys appear to be able to track down and show up exactly where Indy and Helena are, repeatedly.
Eventually, everyone ends up aboard a plane flying in a violent stormy night. The unexpected comes when the time dials are made whole. Indy is faced with a major life decision that may alter the course of history.
“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” is adventures in all caps, a good old-fashioned fantasy action adventure that takes us back to childhood memories and appeals to the adventurous spirit in all of us.
