Indiana Jones & The Dial of Destiny

Ah time: healer of wounds, harbinger of evil, destroyer of worlds, pain in the backside and, apparently, the only available theme for every current blockbuster film.

Time is, in every which way, the pervasive theme of Indiana Jones & The Dial of Destiny. Not only does it drive the plot as the properties of its titular MacGuffin but it’s written all over Harrison Ford’s face throughout what will be the last time we see this character onscreen, easily in consideration to be the greatest character we’ve seen in cinema history.

Sadly, this final go round the globe doesn’t quite deliver THE send off he and the series deserves, failing to deliver a giddy nostalgia rush like The Force Awakens or a sudden shock like No Time To Die.

In the era of ‘franchise-enders’ and ‘series-resurrections’ this was the one, so long in the making, that you would have bet on not falling somewhat flat.

It’s hard to quantify why it does, it’s just that teensy bit underwhelming.

It’s absolutely solid; delivering relentless, well made action set piece after relentless, well made action set piece. It ticks the Indy boxes you expect to be ticked. It brings back old characters and old enemies (lots of Nazis). It rather wisely steers clear of CGI gophers and aliens (although the de-aging tech’ still isn’t quite there yet and distracts too much from the otherwise excellent opening prologue.)

However, it just feels a little ‘by the numbers’. A victim of its own success, no doubt. The first three films arguably form cinema’s greatest trilogy but there’s nothing here to justify its own existence.

We’ll never tire of seeing Ford in the hat, and he is truly immense here, with a clear understanding that he won’t get another chance he throws himself into every scene and simply sweats star power. But it feels more like ‘this is the last chance we’ll have’ rather than ‘we have the ultimate way to end the series.’

Get ready to throw stuff at your screen, but there are some parts of the much-maligned Kingdom of the Crystal Skull that will stick in the memory more than those here. For all that was bad about the ending of that particular film it had some great moments but the simple fact that Dial of Destiny needs to be compared to that rather than the original trilogy rather says it all.

So it's a solid, thoroughly enjoyable adventure starring one of the movie’s all timers with some thrilling scenes (and a brave climax) but that unfairly suffers from merely being ‘solid and strong’ rather than ‘one of cinema’s greatest movies.’

Perhaps, like Indy, I've become old, disillusioned and cantankerous but, with all apologies to Dr. Henry Jones Jr., there's not as many stars below as there should be.

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