Indiana Jones 5 is an entertaining final outing for Indy
Finales are always tricky to get right, especially so when the previous instalment of a series wasn't exactly well received by fans. Do you go back to basics and just repeat past glories, or do you double down and try to change up the formula one final time?
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny has certainly gone for the former as it bids farewell to Harrison Ford's iconic character.
Despite the poor reception out of its Cannes premiere, the approach should be enough to satisfy Indiana Jones fans. Fittingly, Dial of Destiny digs into the past to play more like a greatest-hits package of what you expect from an Indy movie.
It won't end up as anybody's favourite Indiana Jones movie, but with Harrison Ford as good as ever in the role, it's a decent send-off.
Where Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull had Indiana Jones dealing with unexpected fatherhood, the new movie sees him entering retirement and pondering his own mortality. (Not in a deep way, this is a blockbuster, after all.)
His fedora, whip and leather jacket are gathering dust and his adventuring days are behind him, at least until his goddaughter Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) shows up asking about a rare artefact, the Archimedes Dial, which her father (Toby Jones) entrusted to Indy years earlier.
Helena isn't reminiscing about the past, though, and has no desire to follow in her godfather's footsteps. She's all about the money and when she gets her hands on the Dial, she plans to sell it to the highest bidder.
Indy knows that the Nazis were once after it and when his old nemesis Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) resurfaces, now working as a physicist in the US space program, Indy must set off on one final adventure to protect Helena, the Dial and, potentially, history as we know it.
You can't go wrong with Nazis in an Indiana Jones movie, and director James Mangold – who also wrote the script with Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth and David Koepp – sticks with what he knows the fans want.
Even the movie's opening allows Mangold to go back to the classic Indy era as he comes across the dial for the first time in 1944. Deploying some surprisingly effective de-aging, it's a rip-roaring beginning to the movie that starts in a castle occupied by Nazis and ends with an extended chase sequence on board a moving train.
If it feels familiar, that appears to be the point. It might be an homage to the series' past but, when it's done well, a bit of familiarity isn't an issue. Dial of Destiny continues in this vein when it switches to 1969, almost feeling like there's a checklist being ticked off, from MacGuffins and tombs to creepy-crawlies and on-screen maps.
Lip service is paid to Indy being older and thankfully we get minimal old-timer jokes, but otherwise you wouldn't really know. He can still do everything we want to see him doing in several well-staged set pieces which feel classically Indy due to the decision to shoot on location and practically, where possible.
If anything, it's not the familiarity that holds the movie back. The one 'tradition' that's not held over from previous movies is the runtime. Gone is the rough 2-hour template, replaced by a runtime over two and a half hours – and it feels it.
Mangold tries to keep the energy up to make Dial of Destiny an old-fashioned romp, but the formulaic plot often halts it in its tracks. When the plot boils down to getting one MacGuffin to get another MacGuffin on the way to the ultimate MacGuffin, there's not enough to justify the extended runtime and it ends up being repetitive.
The cast manage to see the movie through its lulls though. We know how good Harrison Ford is in the role, it's one that fits him better arguably than any of his others, but unlike in Crystal Skull, he has stronger supporting characters on his journey.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge brings an unpredictability and expert comic timing to Helena, while Mads Mikkelsen is sinister and charismatic in a way that marks Voller out from the usual Nazis in Indiana Jones movies. Other characters, such as Ethann Isidore's Teddy and Boyd Holbrook's Klaber, don't feel as fully rounded as there is tomb raiding to be done instead.
While Crystal Skull has been re-evaluated somewhat in recent years, its finale was certainly divisive at the time. Dial of Destiny's wild final act is set to be a big talking point too, although perhaps not as much as the aliens.
It's here where Mangold manages to blend Indy tradition with something new and, thematically, it works as an affecting finale for the character. It strikes you as a missed opportunity for similar ambition throughout to really make the movie stand out as much as you can understand the 'back-to-basics' approach.
The result is that Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny might not feel particularly innovative, but it is well-made blockbuster entertainment that will deliver what Indiana Jones fans want.
And, sometimes, that's good enough.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is out now in cinemas.
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