directed by James Mangold
written by John-Henry Butterworth, Jez Butterworth, David Koepp and James Mangold
I'll be blunt; I despised Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. As far as I was concerned, the franchise ended with Harrison Ford's Indiana Jones literally riding off into the sunset with his dad played by Sean Connery and his friends played by John Rhys-Davis and Denholm Elliott in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The fourth Indiana Jones movie felt distinctly tacked on, and worse still, as I watched it, I got the distinct impression that nobody involved, from Harrison Ford to Steven Spielberg, really wanted to be there.
As a result, when they announced a few years back that they were actually developing a fifth Indiana Jones movie, back then with Spielberg still slated to direct, I honestly did not mind. I didn't even mind when they announced that Spielberg had stepped back from directing duties, with James Mangold, director of Logan and Ford v. Ferrari, both movies that I loved, taking over.
I only started getting worried when I read about its lukewarm reception from critics and audiences, as well as the plethora of right-leaning critics dogpiling the film as "more woke trash" thanks to the prominent role of British writer/actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
Still, I persevered, and watched it, and you know what? In spite of everything, I actually liked it, despite its bloated running time, Bridge's admittedly obnoxious character and some pretty chuckle-inducing CGI at key moments.
The film starts in 1945 in the dying days of World War II, with Indy (a digitally de-aged Ford superimposed over a much younger body double) and his buddy Basil Shaw (Toby Jones) stealing an ancient artifact called Archimedes' Antikythera, the titular Dial of Destiny, from the Nazis, headed by physicist Jorgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen). Indy and Basil jump the Nazi train just before Allied Forces blow it up, and presumably all's well that ends well.
Flash forward to 1969. The moon landing has just taken place, and Indiana Jones is old and embittered due to a personal tragedy that ruined his marriage to Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), and is basically going through the motions of his teaching job until his retirement, when he is suddenly interrupted by the arrival of two different people: Basil's daughter and Indy's goddaughter Helena (Waller-Bridge) and Voller, now going by the name Schmidt and flanked by several U.S. government agents, having been recruited by the U.S. government after World War II to help them win the space race. Both parties want one thing that Indy has stashed away in the university where he works: Archimedes' Antikythera. The madcap adventure that follows leads Indy halfway across the world, from Morocco to Sicily as he races against time to prevent Voller from using the dial for a truly nefarious purpose.
To be clear: if this movie had come out as a direct sequel to the 1989 film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, I would probably have despised it. While it was, if nothing else, a competent action-adventure movie, it really wouldn't have made sense to append it to a trilogy made by a master filmmaker at the very height of his powers.
The fact is, however, that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was so bad it created the need for this film. There is simply no other way to put it.
On its own, the film has its merits. The action sequence that opens the movie, as well as the madcap car chase that takes place through the streets of Morocco featuring two cars and a tuktuk, of all things, were genuine fun that, in my opinion at least, captured some semblance of the spirit of the original films, if only just. The remainder of the action was hamstrung by either too much darkness like the underwater and cave scenes or some very regrettable CGI, like the big climax. Harrison Ford still cuts an amazing figure even at 80 years, though he was aided and abetted quite a bit by CGI and a body double, especially in the beginning sequence. Mads Mikkelsen turned in his usual solid performance as Voller, while Boyd Holbrook, who once menaced Hugh Jackman in Mangold's Logan, played yet another homicidal henchman. I actually liked the CIA Agent played by Shaunette Renee Wilson, but she didn't have a whole lot of screentime, nor did Antonio Banderas' diving expert Renaldo. The supposed "new blood" introduced by the movie didn't really do anything for me at all, whether it was Waller-Bridge as Helena, or Ethann Isidore as her sidekick Teddy, who was sort of an updated Short Round with a creepy little moustache. I would much rather have had a cameo by Ke Huy Quan, to be honest, but that was not to be, unfortunately.
I'd argue, more than anything, though, that the script was what let this movie down time and again, with its easy reliance on numerous tropes as well as some really sloppy storytelling, like the magical device that enabled the bad guys to know exactly where Indy and company were heading after each escape. While it's easy to bash any movie that features CGI these days, and this film is no exception, I think it's worth pointing out that Industrial Light and Magic did a very decent job de-aging Harrison Ford and mapping him onto a younger actor capable of physical derring-do. Sure, they used the age-old trick of shrouding it all in darkness, but that's their prerogative anyway.
When the film ended it left me feeling much, much better about the franchise than the last one did, but I will say this: it really is time to let this franchise end.
7/10
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