Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’s Low Rotten Tomatoes Score Contradicts Cannes’ Positive Reviews

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny seemed to have a triumphant premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on Thursday, with a six minute standing ovation and some positive first reviews on the night. However, as the first Rotten Tomatoes scores rolled in, it painted a much more mixed response to Harrison Ford’s final adventure as the aging Indy. While it is still early days, the consensus currently stands firmly in “rotten” territory with only half of the first wave of reviews having anything positive to say about the film.

Harrison Ford has seen many things during his four movies as Indiana Jones, and his fifth and final adventure is set to be no different with Nazis, time-travel and plenty of unbelievable stunts bringing the saga of Dr. Jones to a close. However, it seems that there are many who don’t feel that the James Mangold-directed movie quite live up to its predecessors. This is certainly not the feeling that Cannes delivered, and while some have compared it negatively to Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, it should be remembered that the last Indiana Jones movie was given a decent 77% approval rating by critics, but was not so generously loved by audiences.

Of the reviewers that were not on board with Indy’s final outing, Vanity Fair’s Richard Lawson commented that while there is nothing exactly wrong with the movie as a non-Indiana Jones film, it is just “not worthy of the whip.” The Times’ Kevin Maher noted that the film is “not as poor as Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” but is “not much better.” This is something that was echoed by Daily Telegraph’s Robbie Collin, who concurred that the film “feels like a counterfeit of priceless treasure” and “the shabbier craftsmanship gets all the more glaring the longer you look.”

Related: Indiana Jones 5 Featurette Goes Behind the Scenes of Harrison Ford’s Final Adventure as Indy

There Are Plenty of Positives For Dial of Destiny.

Despite these gripes, it should be remembered that critics and audiences have become notorious for not seeing eye to eye about the biggest blockbusters of the last few years. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny could certainly be another to join that collection. However, there are still many critics to have their say on the movie, and there have been some positives in the other reviews already posted.

The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw simply said “Indiana Jones still has a certain old-school class,” while Geoffrey Macnab for The Independent praised Harrison Ford saying, “Harrison Ford is the hero of the hour. He never loses either his scowl or his doggedness. He plays even the flimsiest scenes with conviction and dry humour. His performance carries the movie.”

All in all, it is the box office results that will define how much of a success Indy’s swan song is. As has been seen many times in the last few years, audiences will decide for themselves which big movies they turn out for, and the nostalgia and legacy of Harrison Ford’s iconic cinema legend is certainly more than enough to drive fans to cinemas for one last quest.