Indiana Jones is back. And it’s about ‘Time’!

 

Dial of Destiny relives the Jonesy we all love!

 

“It belongs to the Museum!”

It’s the famous quip with the whip that Indiana Jones, aka, our most loved adventurer of all time, refers to time and again in the series. It’s almost a metaphor for the series that could define the timeless charm of the movie that continues to delight generations from Baby Boomers to Millennials to Gen X, Y, Z and AI.

“Dial of Destiny”, the 5th in the series, manned by James Mangold in the directorial seat, delivers the punch of our swashbuckling archaeologist, and brings back the territory of most of what we are familiar and had fun with from where it all started in Raiders of the Lost Ark: neatly suited and booted Nazis, action-packed chases through the streets of Morocco, a young sidekick echoing Short Round in Temple of Doom, a beautiful and mischievous female protagonist, a reference to a Christian relic like the one in The Last Crusade, unforgettable villains, chases, old friends in the right cultural places, comical gun toting action and of course that twinkle-in-the-eye humor that only Harrison Ford can pull off with his timeless charisma.

Speaking of timeless and without giving away any direct spoilers here, our hero busies himself in time travelling this time, something that the original creators of Indy, namely Steven Spielberg, has always been fascinated in dabbling with when one goes back to ‘Back to the Future’.

Which brings me to another observation: without Steven Spielberg or George Lucas and their original vision of Indy, I was doubtful whether changing of directorial hands would make this an endearing watch, which the first three beautifully did. Personally, I am not such a huge fan of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull which went off the radar a bit from the formula in getting the Reds into what has now become the lesser of the Gods in this Pentalogy.

Honest admission though: I was blown away, despite being a bit hesitant when getting into the theatre to watch it or whether it would do justice to my big box of popcorn, but it never once popped and never was it corny. All the in-jokes accompanying the rollercoaster action and self deprecating humor are all there.

There was also what I thought, an intelligently scripted ironic moment built into the time theme — Dr. Jones is given a farewell from his beloved students at the Department of Archaeology which somehow suggest that he is ‘retired’ and for us, sitting in the audience, it’s a bit of a heartwarming moment. The scene again finds resonance towards the end when one of the characters ask him to come back into the ‘present moment as the world needs him’ and his reply: ‘For who?” is so poignant, it hit my heart a bit.

My humble verdict: Go see this one. You will be glad you did. Not just for the sake of the adventurer whom we have all grown to love so much over time, but for Harrison Ford alone.

He takes a bow, hat and all with a flourishing finish … to history.