'Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny' Review: Harrison Ford’s final instalment surprises and mesmerises

The archaeologist adventurer bows out in good style and gives cinemagoers plenty of bang for their buck along the way.

Since he first arrived on cinema screens in Raiders of the Lost Ark way back in 1981, Indiana Jones’s swashbuckling escapades have made him a firm favourite among audiences worldwide.

Dial of Destiny is a worthy fifth instalment for this franchise, combining jaw-dropping action sequences with Harrison Ford’s reliably assured performance as an aging Indy to deliver an impressive summer blockbuster.

In an extended prologue sequence set in 1944 (with a digitally de-aged Ford), Jones and Nazi scientist Jurgen Voller (Mads Mikkelson) are grappling for one half of the mystical Archimedes Dial in a tense tussle atop a fast-moving train.

The Dial may be the most powerful artefact Indy has encountered yet – an object apparently capable of changing history by identifying fissures in time.

Cut to 1969 New York, where a weary, miserable and newly-divorced Indy is delivering uninspiring university lectures to bored students. Then along comes Indy’s goddaughter, Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) who, aided by her young accomplice Teddy (Ethann Isidore), wants to get her hands on the Archimedes Dial for mysterious motives. Also popping up again is the ruthless Voller, who has survived the collapse of the Third Reich and now, with henchmen in tow, craves possession of the Dial to exact his evil revenge.

To describe the film as action-packed would be an understatement – director James Mangold keeps the explosive all-guns-blazing set-pieces coming thick and fast, and events are in top gear for almost the entire 2.5 hour runtime.

Particularly captivating are an innovative diving sequence, a chase on horseback through sixties New York and a hell-for-leather, Jaguar versus tuk-tuk pursuit through Moroccan backstreets.

Eighty-year-old Ford is still on top of his game and doesn’t miss a beat in his portrayal of the cantankerous hero, while Waller-Bridge’s performance adds charm and fearless flair to proceedings.

On the minus side, the extremely far-fetched climax is a sore test of the viewer’s willing suspension of disbelief, the film is too long, and there is a paucity of the witty lines and humourous moments which are normally a hallmark of this franchise’s adventures.

But the delight of seeing Indiana Jones back in his trademark brown fedora, cracking his whip and dodging bullets again in audacious set-pieces is more than enough to make Ford’s swansong an honourable addition to the iconic series.

Rating: 3.5/5

Photo: John Griffiths, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

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