Indiana Jones And The Dial of Destiny Review - Indiana Jones' Finale Was Destined To Lose Magic & Logic Both

James Mangold gets the honour of directing Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones for the final time in "Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny." After Logan and Ford vs. Ferrari, James had gained my trust, so I thought he would redevelop the iconic Indiana Jones after an underwhelming fourth part, which came after three back-to-back classics in the 80s. The first three films of the Indiana Jones franchise are so good and memorable that even a decent sequel looks below par, and that's what happened to "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (2008). The expectations were low since the predecessor wasn't really good and we didn't have Spielberg, the creator of this timeless adventure film, but Indiana Jones 5 came out even worse than expected. Somehow, I sensed that it was destined to lose its magic, but here it lost logic too. That 80s charisma of Ford and those nostalgic adventures are entitled to look outdated today, but the team of Indiana Jones didn't understand this and rather tried to gain on the old footage with modern VFX.Indiana Jones 5 starts with a flashback from the World War II era, where young Indy (Harrison Ford) is captured by Nazis. While attempting to retrieve a stolen artifact, Jones and his friend, Basil (Toby Jones), learn about an even more valuable and important asset, the Dial of Destiny, invented by the legendary Greek mathematician ''Archimedes'. Now back to 1969: Jones is a teacher at a university, while Basil has gone mad discovering the features of the Dial. Basil's daughter Helena/Wombat (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) and Indy are attacked by Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), who has been after the dial since WW II. Helena flees with the dial, but it is regained by Voller, and again comes back to Helena as she is joined by Jones to find the remaining part of the dial. The cat and mouse game between these two gangs takes us to the Tomb of Archimedes, and then we have some time travel theories in store, which shouldn't be spoiled here.Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny is a below average script with a damn outdated screenplay. Indy is not that strong anymore, and watching him helpless and weak like this is painful for the fans. Helena's character is trying to top him throughout the film, and that's how the weak base of the narrative is built. You can't just showcase our hero as common and have a greedy girl take him over without knowing his legacy. There is no sense in that because then you don't feel any emotional connection with their characters, as they are supposed to save each other on every step. I mean, how can somebody lose all the modern sense of 2023 and make a film with 80s conflicts? We all know that no matter what, the hero and heroine cannot die, so why do you have to do so much firing and chasing just to save them every time and show us how outdated you are as a writer? Helena's brother is a kid, but he can drive a vehicle, he can handle the wheel of a boat, and he can even handle an aeroplane, but he can't swim. What the hell? Indy is so weak that he hardly fights anybody, and yet we are supposed to carry on with a non-heroic protagonist for two and a half hours. Helena is so typical. I mean, you can guess exactly what she is going to do at the next moment. Voller's antagonist is himself not smart, so how can those muscular bodyguards save him time and again? An autorickshaw is chasing a car, matching its speed—oh wait, no, it was overtaking. How? The climax goes over the top, and you feel so annoyed. 214 BC.. Seriously? Why did you leave Jesus' Christ and Judah Benhur out then?Harrison Ford was better than Ford cars back in the 70s and 80s, with iconic films and roles in Star Wars and Indiana Jones. By God's grace, films and roles like those happen only at the right time, but misusing the legacy for your mediocre popcorn flick is an indirect insult. Like mentioned above, seeing Heroic Jones so flabby is painful. No matter how much Ford tries, somehow that magic of the 80s cannot be recreated after 4 decades. Phoebe Waller-Bridge is nothing but a humdrum young heroine who just goes to challenge the leading man and ends up losing her own identity. Mads Mikkelsen, of Hunt and Doctor Strange fame, is somewhat lost here. A few scenes have him in a strong zone, but it's damn dated otherwise. Antonio Banderas, John Rhys-Davies, and Toby Jones are fine in their short but positive roles. Ethann Isidore is too much of a man for a kid, while Boyd Holbrook is ferocious enough as one of the villains. The supporting cast is okay, and that's the best adjective for them here.Indiana Jones 5 doesn't go much wrong with the VFX. The young parts of Jones are impressive, even though the action sequences are too mainstream. The cinematography of Phedon Papamichael is very fine in the action and chasing segments and pretty average the rest of the time. The Dial of Destiny has a nice production design as it takes you on a world tour, to different locations and haunting places, but somewhere it has started looking too familiar. Any POTC or The Mummy film has similar sets and locations, so there is nothing spectacular or new. James Mangold had an opportunity to end the legendary saga on a strong note. But the pressure was so High that he couldn't even deliver his standard work under that load. Mangold missed a golden opportunity and turned that Gold into Steel. It glitters, but it can never shine as brightly as Gold. All the universal laws of a mainstream action adventure from the past are put together to give a sendoff to Indiana Jones, when we all know that Indiana Jones deserved something original for its original legacy. Overall, a finale that actually puts an end to the franchise because nobody would want to see it anymore. Let's go back to the 1980s and enjoy Spielberg's classic trilogy again to feel the nostalgia.