Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny Review: Cinematic Liberties Mar The Narrative

Title: Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny

Director: James Mangold

Cast: Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller Bridge, Antonio Banderas, John Rhys-Davies, Shaunette Renee Wilson, and others

Where: In theatres near you

Rating: ***

This thrilling adventure-packed film is the fifth and final instalment of the much sought-after Indiana Jones franchise that started in 1981 featuring Harrison Ford in the titular role of the rugged, quick-thinking archaeologist. In this treasure-hunt film, he is “trying to save history”.

Keeping Ford’s age in mind, one expected a toned-down version of close-shave thrills and excitement, but instead, the film surprises you with its ingeniously staged action sequences that keep you glued to the screen.

The film, narrated in a linear manner, begins with an extended prologue set in Germany during the end of World War II.

In the dramatic turn of events after escaping the Nazis, in his endeavour to retrieve the Lance of Longinus, the knife used to draw Christ’s blood, the young Indiana Jones, aka Indy, hops on a Nazi train full of looted antiquities, only to learn that what he is relentlessly pursuing is fake.

On the train, before it derails, he bumps into Basil Shaw (Toby Jones), aka Baaz, a friend and fellow archaeologist from Oxford who has one-half of the Antikythera or the Dial of Destiny, a hand-held device of ancient gold invented by the Greek mathematician Archimedes in the third century. This instrument can locate fissures in time and could be used as a time travel device.

Years later, in 1969, Indy is haunted by the loss of his son, battered, scarred, and unhappy with life as he is being forced to retire from teaching, when out of the blue, Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) Shaw’s daughter and also Indy’s godchild, shows up at the university he is teaching. She wants the device to achieve fame and fortune, and her mercenary motives give her an almost quasi-villain-esque feel for the first-half of the narrative. In her endeavour Teddy (Ethan Isidore) supports her as a side-kick. He pulls off random cons while being with her.

Also after the Dial of Destiny is the German astrophysicist Jurgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), from whom Indy had pinched it way back in the 1940s. He will stop at nothing to get his hands on it. He wants to return to the 1930s to correct Hitler’s mistakes and, moreover, to replace Hitler.

On the performance front, Ford, despite being natural and agile on screen, often appears disengaged. Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s crafty performance adds spunk to her character, but does not elevate her presence on screen. The rest of the cast is all perfunctory.

The plot of this feel-good film, with the exciting time-travel to 212 AD and the non-stop pacing of the astutely choreographed action sequences, takes cinematic liberties with the narrative and thus makes the telling shallow.

The film has ace production values. While it boasts brilliant cinematography with most of the frames in sepia tone, the computer-generated images and studio shots passed off for the boat in the deep sea are of poor quality.

Overall, the film ends on a flat note and is not at all stirring.