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starlady Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, dir. James Mangold.
Overall, I enjoyed it. These movies mean a lot to me because I grew up watching them with my dad, and I'm happy that they were able to get one more made. It's a much better ending to the franchise than Crystal Skull, which isn't as bad as everyone remembers except for the glaring racism of the premise. And the first two acts are often quite good! I was dismayed to see so many side characters keep dying, but it was good. I was also sad that the Amber Room panels didn't get at least a visual mention on-camera. But there's no getting around the third act needing another rewrite.
It was good to see the franchise go back to what it does best, namely punching Nazis. Punching Nazis: always good and never not relevant! Also it seemed pretty pointed that this time they were wandering around in ancient Greek ruins rather than poking around in some ancient non-Western culture. Which I approve of! But some stuff fell a bit flat: Helena accusing Indy of being a grave-robber is not really credible coming from someone who admittedly deals in stolen antiquities and is definitely of an age to know better. I couldn't quite hear the line but I think she says these accusations are why he left Yale? Honey, Yale barely even pretends to care about grave-robbing in 2023, let alone 1959. Yikes.
I was spoiled about the time travel, but I wasn't expecting…going back to the Siege of Syracuse. I was expecting they'd go back to 1959 and do something to set things right, or that they'd go back to the near-past a la the time-turner in Potter and Indy would be running around behind his own back. (Or maybe even back to 1945 again?) I definitely didn't expect all the secondary characters to stay dead! And frankly there are dramaturgical problems with the way they finished it. To wit, first of all, anytime you have the main character get knocked out in the middle of the action and cut to the happy ending, well, you know you've fucked up. I know we're supposed to think that Indy has stuff to live for, and we do, but nobody in the film ever quite articulates it explicitly and instead we're left with Indy asserting that he has nothing left and he should stay in the past while shot in the chest. That doesn't feel great! And even when we do find that Marian has come back (yay!), the dialogue left something to be desired.
Speaking of the gunshot, I keep wondering whether it was actually necessary and I think…no? I also wonder whether the guy asleep in the plane the kid steals was necessary and I also think…probably not? I should not be thinking these things about these elements. In any case the random guy needs to have had much more to do to justify his randomly appearing during the finale.
Also, the way the Nazis die is supremely unsatisfying. I thought a lot about the endings of Raiders and Last Crusade, and they both actually end with Indy and/or his friends captured, but the Nazis fuck up and get their faces melted/turned to dust because of their own hubris. And the outlines of that are in here, but a plane crash just isn't very personal. (I did really like that the street puppet show fore/post-shadowed what happened, though, a device that was also great in The Green Knight.) Particularly since that one Nazi dude has killed so many people so happily, and then he starts shooting the Romans and the Greeks with a machine gun--hugely unsatisfying to have Helena's shot not kill him. I did notice a bit of a face-melting effect on Voller's corpse, but again, it should have been a lot more personal.
I keep thinking how I would fix this and I was expecting, when they did show up in Syracuse, more working together with the Syracusans, or something. I actually went to the bathroom right before the time travel because I was expecting a few more reels! And certainly the answer was not Helena knocking Indy out and fading to black back in New York. (Sidebar: Their Greek is reasonably good but not hugely classical. Also I think the Syracusans spoke Ionic?) What about him being wanted for murder? What happened to the Dial? These questions aren't answered and there was an obvious opportunity to do a callback to the ending of Raiders with the government covering everything up.
Anyway, ultimately the elements are all here but they aren't quite put together in a satisfying way. Clearly it seemed like the window was closing and they went with the script they had, which is understandable, but I do think that Spielberg or Jonathan Kasdan would have done a much better job stitching everything together even with the same script. At least Young Indiana Jones is on Disney+ (for now).
Overall, I enjoyed it. These movies mean a lot to me because I grew up watching them with my dad, and I'm happy that they were able to get one more made. It's a much better ending to the franchise than Crystal Skull, which isn't as bad as everyone remembers except for the glaring racism of the premise. And the first two acts are often quite good! I was dismayed to see so many side characters keep dying, but it was good. I was also sad that the Amber Room panels didn't get at least a visual mention on-camera. But there's no getting around the third act needing another rewrite.
It was good to see the franchise go back to what it does best, namely punching Nazis. Punching Nazis: always good and never not relevant! Also it seemed pretty pointed that this time they were wandering around in ancient Greek ruins rather than poking around in some ancient non-Western culture. Which I approve of! But some stuff fell a bit flat: Helena accusing Indy of being a grave-robber is not really credible coming from someone who admittedly deals in stolen antiquities and is definitely of an age to know better. I couldn't quite hear the line but I think she says these accusations are why he left Yale? Honey, Yale barely even pretends to care about grave-robbing in 2023, let alone 1959. Yikes.
I was spoiled about the time travel, but I wasn't expecting…going back to the Siege of Syracuse. I was expecting they'd go back to 1959 and do something to set things right, or that they'd go back to the near-past a la the time-turner in Potter and Indy would be running around behind his own back. (Or maybe even back to 1945 again?) I definitely didn't expect all the secondary characters to stay dead! And frankly there are dramaturgical problems with the way they finished it. To wit, first of all, anytime you have the main character get knocked out in the middle of the action and cut to the happy ending, well, you know you've fucked up. I know we're supposed to think that Indy has stuff to live for, and we do, but nobody in the film ever quite articulates it explicitly and instead we're left with Indy asserting that he has nothing left and he should stay in the past while shot in the chest. That doesn't feel great! And even when we do find that Marian has come back (yay!), the dialogue left something to be desired.
Speaking of the gunshot, I keep wondering whether it was actually necessary and I think…no? I also wonder whether the guy asleep in the plane the kid steals was necessary and I also think…probably not? I should not be thinking these things about these elements. In any case the random guy needs to have had much more to do to justify his randomly appearing during the finale.
Also, the way the Nazis die is supremely unsatisfying. I thought a lot about the endings of Raiders and Last Crusade, and they both actually end with Indy and/or his friends captured, but the Nazis fuck up and get their faces melted/turned to dust because of their own hubris. And the outlines of that are in here, but a plane crash just isn't very personal. (I did really like that the street puppet show fore/post-shadowed what happened, though, a device that was also great in The Green Knight.) Particularly since that one Nazi dude has killed so many people so happily, and then he starts shooting the Romans and the Greeks with a machine gun--hugely unsatisfying to have Helena's shot not kill him. I did notice a bit of a face-melting effect on Voller's corpse, but again, it should have been a lot more personal.
I keep thinking how I would fix this and I was expecting, when they did show up in Syracuse, more working together with the Syracusans, or something. I actually went to the bathroom right before the time travel because I was expecting a few more reels! And certainly the answer was not Helena knocking Indy out and fading to black back in New York. (Sidebar: Their Greek is reasonably good but not hugely classical. Also I think the Syracusans spoke Ionic?) What about him being wanted for murder? What happened to the Dial? These questions aren't answered and there was an obvious opportunity to do a callback to the ending of Raiders with the government covering everything up.
Anyway, ultimately the elements are all here but they aren't quite put together in a satisfying way. Clearly it seemed like the window was closing and they went with the script they had, which is understandable, but I do think that Spielberg or Jonathan Kasdan would have done a much better job stitching everything together even with the same script. At least Young Indiana Jones is on Disney+ (for now).