Thursday 21 December 2023

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (James Mangold, 2023)


Harrison Ford finally bows out of his other big action franchise role, years after Han Solo was killed off. God knows it's been long enough coming, but better than having the actor die on the job, though.
To wrap up the character's story, there are once more Nazi villains and a supernatural gizmo to find, this one being the dial of the title, created by Archimedes to travel in time.
Of course he always neds a sidekick, particularly as he can't be expected to do all the heavy lifting anymore. This is provided in the form of Phoebe Waller-Bridge as his goddaughter, also an archaeologist but one driven by money, and it takes a good part of the film and for her to turn from an antagonist to an ally. Oh, and there's a Moroccan street urchin in tow too. 
The film's interminable running time is just bickering between Ford and Waller-Bridge, which purports to be amusing, and naturally endless preposterous chase and fight sequences.
It wasn't long ago when the director closed the hero stories of Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart in a very satisfactory way in Logan. I assume he simply wasn't allowed to do the same here.

4/10

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