Film Review: "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" (2023).

"A legend will face his destiny" in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. This action adventure film directed by James Mangold, written by Mangold, Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth, and David Koepp, and based on the characters created by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman. Experience the return of legendary hero, Indiana Jones, in the fifth installment of this beloved swashbuckling series of films. Finding himself in a new era, approaching retirement, Indy wrestles with fitting into a world that seems to have outgrown him. But as the tentacles of an all-too-familiar evil return in the form of an old rival, Indy must don his hat and pick up his whip once more to make sure an ancient and powerful artifact doesn't fall into the wrong hands.

Plans for a fifth Indiana Jones film go back to the late 1970s when Lucas and Steven Spielberg negotiated with Paramount for four sequels to Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). Lucas began researching potential plot devices for a fifth film in 2008, although the project stalled for years. In 2016, Koepp was eventually hired to write the fifth film with a release date set for 2019, although this was delayed several times due to rewrites. In 2018, Jonathan Kasdan was hired to replace Koepp, who returned to write in 2019 before eventually leaving the project. Spielberg was too direct, but stepped down in 2020, with Mangold hired to replace him. By early June 2021, Harrison Ford and John Rhys-Davies were confined to reprise their roles, with Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Antonio Banderas, Toby Jones, Boyd Holbrook, Shaunette Renée Wilson, and Thomas Kretschmann rounding out the film's cast. At the same time, principal photography commenced and wrapped in late February 2022. Filming took place at Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK, as well as Glasgow, Scotland; Marsala, Trapani, Sicily, Italy; Northumberland and North Yorkshire, England. With an estimated production budget of nearly $300 million, it is the most expensive film in the Indiana Jones franchise, as well as one of the most expensive films ever made. The film was originally set for a July 19, 2019 release date. But, in April 2017, it was delayed to July 10, 2020. It then shifted to July 9, 2021, and then once again delayed to July 29, 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, in October 2021, it was delayed to June 30, 2023.

The film stars Ford, Rhys-Davies, Waller-Bridge, Mikkelsen, Banderas, Jones, Holbrook, Wilson, and Kretschmann. Ford does a convincing job as an ageing adventurer not quite ready to join the museum-worthy objects he collects.

The film dazzles audiences with a surface of nostalgic fun made shiny new-but beneath that mask, if you care to notice it, lurks an abyss of futility. The mediocrity of the film is not the fault of the audience, but people need to demand more. This is simply not serious or challenging filmmaking, even in the action genre. It's fan fiction writ large, making it clearer than ever that George Lucas is Indiana Jones. With his voice gone, all that's left are tinny reverberations of movie history.

Simon says Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny receives:

Also, see my review for Ford v Ferrari.