I grew up loving the Indiana Jones trilogy, heck I actually even enjoyed watching The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles too. Also, I did not hate The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull like many people did, do not get me wrong I did not love it, but I also did not hate it. However, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is the first movie in the series to be fully handled by Disney and without any direct involvement from George Lucas or Steven Spielberg.
How to Download Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
You can expect to be able to download or stream the film from Disney+ about 45 days after its theatrical release which happened on June 30, 2023. Click on the Download button at the end of this review.
The Movie Review
To be honest with you, I felt like this was completely unnecessary. Going back to The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull for a moment, that movie I feel struggled because The Last Crusade literally ended with Indy riding off into the sunset, it was the perfect ending. Bringing back Indy is something that just does not feel necessary and I have to say this movie does not change that feeling.
The best part about this movie is the opening scene. We get to see Indy doing what he does best, fighting a bunch of Nazis and trying to stop them from getting their hands on something they should not. They have de-aged Harrison Ford for this and the de-aging that they have done is pretty amazing.
We find out that there is this mysterious relic called the Dial of Destiny that can be used to basically time travel! The movie jumps forward into the 60s and we see an old Indiana Jones being forced out to pasture at the university he works at and he is completely bummed out and just really down. It is pretty sad to see this amazing hero and adventurer in this kind of state.
In walks a young woman called Helena Shaw! Turns out Helena Shaw is Indy’s goddaughter, she is the daughter of a man called Basil, someone despite there being four Indiana Jones movies we have never seen before! Look, Helena is a critical part of this story and she is pretty wild and full of adventure just like Indy.
I feel they could have explained her in a better way than being a forced goddaughter for what felt like plot convenience, what about her father just knowing Indy or her reading about his exploits? To be fair there is more here than I can talk about as I do not want to spoil things. Of course, getting their hands on this Dial of Destiny before it falls into the wrong hands is what the plot of the movie is about.
There are some good characters in this movie. I thought it was awesome seeing Antonio Banderas in an Indiana Jones movie. However, it was Mads Mikkelsen playing the role of a Nazi who now works for NASA that I thought stole the show. No matter the movie, Mads Mikkelsen always brings his A game and he was fantastic here.
There is some good action and there is nothing as cringy as the scene where Mutt swings through the trees in the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull! You know, I feel like I have seen some pretty ropey CGI in some big blockbusters over the last few years, but that is not the case here, this movie looks great!
To be honest with you, I liked Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny more than I thought I would. It was a fun watch for the most part, but I still feel like they kind of cheated Indiana Jones as he really did get the perfect ending in The Last Crusade. It might blow some people’s minds to read this, but if they wanted to make new Indiana Jones movies, perhaps a complete reboot with a new Indiana Jones would have been the way to go!
