Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny: We Named The Dog Indiana

Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford), along with his god-daughter attempt to find the second half of an ancient artifact built by Archimedes with the ability to travel through time.  Along the way, they must fight former Nazi Astrophysicist, Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) who wishes to use the item for his own nefarious gains.  Other long time friends and new ones make appearances, like John Rhys-Davies as Sallah who was in the original movies and Antonio Banderas as Renaldo, an old pilot friend.

It was alright. I enjoyed it for what it is, an Indiana Jones story.  The young Indy de-aging CGI is ok, it gets wonky not too far from the start and then at some points, the CGI is PS4 videogame graphics. Also, while it is Ford’s voice in those early days scenes, its old man Ford, not young Ford, and it’s noticeable especially if you have watched the previous films recently like I did before seeing this one. Once you notice it, its over for that illusion. Casting Toby Jones as Indy’s friend and fellow archeologist I think was a mistake, especially for the scenes that took place in 1939, it felt like I was watching Indy teamed with Arnim Zola of Hydra. Just couldn’t shake that from my mind. Mads Mikkelsen is the typical Nazi, nothing exciting there and he has some signature goons that follow him around. Again, nothing exciting. I could not stand the character Helena played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge. I was trying to pinpoint why I didn’t like her, I think it was her arrogance and general demeanor. Kind of a braggart attitude at times that I don’t like in real life with people I meet. I know a few people like her in real life, and I don’t like them either. She also assumes the lead over Ford’s Indy in most scenes given that Ford is 81, so not a lot of jumping around or Indy shenanigans for him anymore. I guess I wasn’t ready for that, seeing Indy take a backseat at times in his own movie.

The character that I found interesting and felt was wasted was Mason played by Shaunette Renee Wilson. I was actually hoping to see more of her character. Given the timeframe of 1969, I liked seeing her so high up in Government work, and that’s all you get without spoiling things. Sallah returns and that’s cool and Antonio Banderas is in it,…there’s a new “Short Round” kid character, and it embraces the fantastical like Crystal Skull did, so if you weren’t a fan of that one, you might not like this one. They address Indy’s son Mutt and where he is, as well as Marion too.

It was nice seeing Ford back as one of his most iconic characters aside from Han Solo, but also a little sad too.