“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” debuted in May at the Cannes Film Festival, where it received what could kindly be described as a tepid response from critics.
Based on a recent advanced screening of the fifth and, supposedly, final film in the beloved series dating to 1981’s “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” it’s pretty easy to say “Dial” isn’t some horrendous “Indiana Jones” adventure.
But, alas, it isn’t a particularly strong one, either.
It’s as if talented filmmaker James Mangold — taking the reins from franchise director Steven Spielberg — set out to make a convincing forgery of an “Indiana Jones.”
Aside from Spielberg, all the requisite ingredients are there, from Harrison Ford in the titular role — wearing his leather jacket and fedora and occasionally cracking that iconic whip — to an archeological treasure to scheming Nazis to one last rousing score from the great John Williams.
And yet the affair constantly feels a little off, starting with the action-packed first act set 25 years before the main adventure and featuring a convincingly de-aged Ford.
It isn’t simply that this prologue, which introduces us to the film’s villain, then-Nazi officer Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), runs too long. It’s that given all that transpires during it — Indy and an archeologist pal, Basil Shaw (Toby Jones), eventually ending up on a speeding train trying to rescue a rare artifact from the Nazis — the sequence should feel more thrilling than it does.
Like much of what will follow it, it’s competent but somehow underwhelming.
The film then moves to its present day, 1969, more than 10 years after the events of 2008’s “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” which saw the hero learn he had a son (Shia LaBeouf’s Mutt Williams) and wed old flame Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen).
Now, an even-more-curmudgeonly Indiana Jones is living alone in an apartment not far from New York’s Hunter College, where he has taught for about a decade and from where he is set to retire. (Yes, you will learn why Indy is on his own.)
He gets a more appealing sidekick than Mutt for this adventure in estranged goddaughter Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), daughter of the late Basil and an adventurous archeologist herself. She visits the man who continues to call her by the nickname “Wombat” at school and, after a catch-up drink, proceeds to steal the half of a rare artifact that’s stored at the college in the hopes of selling it to the highest bidder.
The theory goes that, when reconstructed, Archimedes Dial could be used to locate fissures in time, thereby allowing for time travel. That is why Voller, now a physicist working in the U.S. space program and not bashful about mistakes he feels Nazi leader Adolf Hitler made during World War II, also is desperate to get his hands on it.
The furious Indy flies off to Tangier to retrieve the stolen half of the dial from Helena, but, of course, the two must team up to stop Voller from acquiring both halves.
Written by brothers Jez and John-Henry Butterworth (“Flag Day”), “Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull” scribe David Koepp and Mangold, “Dial” also features notable supporting performances by Antonio Banderas (“Pain and Glory”), as Renaldo, an old friend to whom Indy turns when he needs the services of an expert diver in Greece; Ethann Isidore (“Mortel”), as Helena’s young-but-capable partner in crime, Teddy; and an underutilized Boyd Holbrook (“Vengeance”), as Voller’s lead henchman, Klaber.
Making time a key element to this story helps lean into the inescapable fact that Indiana Jones is no young man. All credit to Ford, now 80, for being able to pull off this seemingly physically demanding performance — it’s somehow believable when Indy mounts a police horse to escape pursuers in the middle of a New York City parade — but this is not the hero at his most compelling.
“Dial” is, in fact, at its most engaging whenever Waller-Bridge is in the frame. The writer of the brilliant but short-lived comedy series “Fleabag,” she also starred in that show and has made other memorable performances, including as the voice of activist droid L3-37 in “Solo: A Star Wars Story.” Helena is spirited and a bit selfish, but, at the end of the day, she cares about this father figure, all of which comes through via Waller-Bridge’s work.
And, at the very least, Mikkelsen is a solid baddie, the “Hannibal” and “Another Round” star possessing an unquestionable screen presence. (That the character’s motivations aren’t exactly what you assume is a nice touch by the writers, by the way.)
All the ingredients should add up to a more flavorful film, “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” tasting a little too bland a little too often.
It’s surprising that Mangold — whose impressive list of credits includes “Girl, Interrupted” (1999), “Walk the Line” (2005), “Logan” (2017) and “Ford v Ferrari” (2019) — wasn’t able to bring something a little more zesty to the proceedings. He is said to have consulted repeatedly with Spielberg, who, along with Indiana Jones co-creator George Lucas is credited as an executive producer.
OK, it would have been unrealistic to expect something approaching the best of the movies — which, for the record, is not “Raiders” but instead 1989’s endlessly entertaining “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” — but the hope was it would rise well above “Kingdom” and 1984’s herky-jerky “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.”
So much for that.
The movie’s production notes proclaim this to be “the final chapter in the saga of one of cinema’s greatest heroes,” even if the very final shot makes you wonder about that, if only slightly.
“Dial” brings back at least one friend dating to “Raiders,” John Rhys-Davies’ Sallah, Indy’s longtime pal, who all but begs to tag along with him on one last adventure.
“This is not an adventure, Sallah!” the grumpy archeologist insists. “Those days have come and gone.”
Well,“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” does qualify as an adventure, but, yes, it does seem as if THOSE days have come and gone.
‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’
Where; Theaters.
When: June 30.
Rated: PG-13 for sequences of violence and action, language and smoking.
Runtime: 2 hours, 34 minutes.
Stars (of four): 2.
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