Movie Review – Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

An Indy to Remember

‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ has everything you want in an Indiana Jones movies. It’s commendable that James Mangold could match Spielberg’s vision and make a near perfect film using his template without having any self-righteousness finding its way. Generally, in a series when the director changes, the tone of the film gets affected but here it was lovely. An advantage which Mangold had was that he could work with Indy of different age but that’s not as easy as its being said and he nailed it to perfection.

When the masked Indy entered the screen, I couldn’t help but hum, “Nayagan meendum varan”. What an apt song it’d have been at that juncture. It was such a pleasure to watch the old Indy. How lovely was the de-aging technique evolved. But a part of me was not accepting the technology too. It felt as if giving a false dream to people. As if they can get into a young body. Something like the concept of ‘Get Out’ The first episode, even though intriguing didn’t keep me cent percent comfortable due to the antics. It’s only when I saw the old Indy, it got me comfortable.

The one thing which was messed up in ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ was Indy’s ageing. He was neither here, nor there. Instead of him, it was us who were caught in the mid-life crisis. But here we see an age old wrinkled Indy. In fact the very scene where the transformation happens we see a physically weak Indiana Jones getting ready for the day. For a moment, it made me wonder, whether the director was going to go ‘About Schimdt’ way and deal with his loneliness and stuff but thankfully Indy is Indy and he can’t get old at heart. The adventure did happen.

Probably it’s the only Indiana Jones movies where someone, Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), was more vibrant than Indian Jones Himself. Even though Harrison Ford could hold his charm. His other accompanies couldn’t. For they looked way too old and weak. May be a script involving them doing all the math and less of action could have been a fitting climax.

Luckily or fortunately, Harrison Ford didn’t look old or misfit for all the stunt sequences. The pacing of the film and next to next stunts were superbly choreographed and were at the perfect setting. Thankfully Indiana Jones had the age old charm and didn’t let the new age cynicism creep in. The last thing I would have wanted is to see a dark Indy movie.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge is someone who must be talked about. What charm she packs and it’s not easy to come into a hero oriented movie and perform better than him. Not only did she have a chemistry with Indy but her chemistry with Teddy Kumar (Ethann Isidore). It looked as if they were real sibling. The scene where she changes to whites before the climax, she looked ravishing and the wink to kid was so charming. What a woman!

For a film which goes on this pace and with great objective, there has to be a big bang climax. The walk into the Archimedes’ tomb was adventurous enough but the next great twist and a date with Archimedes himself was something which made my movie watching experience, worthy. If not for that twist I would have still been a happy man and would have been a nice trip down the memory lane but with the Archimedes twist, it was wholesome and gave me a heartfelt satisfaction.

PS: How lovely was it, that the final clue to enter the tomb was Archimedes’ principle itself with water spurting out.