'Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny' Review

 

Synopsis: Archaeologist Indiana Jones races against time to retrieve a legendary artifact that can change the course of history.

Runtime: 142 minutes

MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for sequences of violence and action, language, and smoking.)

Who should see it? Fans of Harrison Ford and Indiana Jones eager to see the final installment in the franchise.

Raiders of the Lost Ark debuted in movie theaters 42 years ago. From the creative minds of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, an iconic action hero was born. Regardless of your feelings towards Raiders, Temple of Doom, Last Crusade, or Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the character of Indiana Jones has endured and remains one of the most daring heroes to ever grace the silver screen. I'm not here to relitigate those films but think it's worth mentioning that I enjoy all four to varying degrees. Alongside Star Wars, the Indiana Jones series is another Lucasfilm franchise that meant a lot to me growing up. Needless to say, I was very excited when a fifth entry was announced. At the time, Spielberg was set to direct. It felt serendipitous that Spielberg and Harrison Ford would explore the aged archeologist in his twilight years. Though, it can certainly be argued that they'd done so already in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull... 

In the seven years since a fifth Indiana Jones movie was announced, several screenwriters came and went while Spielberg ultimately vacated the director's chair. Spielberg remained an executive producer on the project but wanted to pass the bullwhip off to another filmmaker for a fresh perspective. James Mangold was then brought on and had the unenviable task of stepping into the shoes of Steven Spielberg, not to mention bringing this beloved series to a close. To further complicate matters, Harrison Ford was 78 years old when the cameras started rolling and production found itself amidst a global pandemic. To say Dial of Destiny had a troubled production would be putting it mildly. 

Ford sustained a shoulder injury while rehearsing a fight scene, and was unable to film for three months, but Mangold persevered. Action scenes involving Indy were shot with a stunt double, and Ford's face was digitally imposed in post-production. Meanwhile, the production budget ballooned to nearly $300 M, making Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny one of the most expensive movies ever made. I preface my thoughts on Dial of Destiny with all of this because I think it's worth noting all the hurdles Mangold and his crew had to overcome. And I commend them for that. 

Unfortunately, I left the theater disappointed by Dial of Destiny. As I alluded to earlier, even the lesser Indiana Jones adventures benefited from simply having Steven Spielberg behind the camera. He's one of the greatest living filmmakers, so his direction tends to elevate even subpar scripts. I admire much of Mangold's work, and Ford v Ferrari actually gave me the confidence he'd be a natural fit for an Indiana Jones movie. Ford v Ferrari marries the sensibilities of old-school storytelling with contemporary filmmaking. With Indiana Jones, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg delivered thrilling action and adventure that harkened back to pulpy serials while pushing the boundaries of special effects. Spielberg's successor needed to follow suit if they hoped to recapture the spirt of the series.

Dial of Destiny underwhelmed me for many reasons, but the source of my disappointment can be traced back to a half-baked script and uninspired filmmaking. The ending of the film is functional, but the payoffs don't feel earned. The groundwork for a bonkers and mostly satisfying third act has been haphazardly lain. Mangold seems to be interested in the idea of Indiana Jones being past his prime, yet Indy's age is not actively an impediment to the action. It's occasionally brought up as a means of comic relief or a slight inconvenience, but Indy marches on. He rarely struggles as a result of pushing 80 years old, so the discussion around it fails to resonate as intended. He rides a horse through New York City and jumps between moving tuk-tuks in Morocco with youthful vigor. He sure doesn't seem 80!

For a series that's usually highly regarded for its craft, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is a pale imitation of everything that came before it. James Mangold is no Steven Spielberg. Nobody is. But I've seen plenty of evidence throughout Mangold's filmography that he is a talented director capable of greatness. Indiana Jones is synonymous with thrilling adventure, yet the action is dull and woefully generic. The set pieces are frenetically edited, and lack visual clarity and a sense of geography, making it very difficult to follow along. Aside from featuring a rousing John Williams score and some familiar faces, Dial of Destiny is indistinguishable from other contemporary blockbusters. 

Donning the trademark fedora for his final adventure, Harrison Ford is actually one of the film's saving graces. Despite his age, there is no question of Ford's commitment to closing out this chapter of his career. Opposite Ford as Indy's god-daughter, Phoebe Waller-Bridge brings a sardonic wit to Helena Shaw that reminded me of her character from the Prime Video series Fleabag. Unfortunately, this feels woefully out-of-place and I found the character a tad obnoxious for the first two-thirds of the movie. Her one-liners felt far too modern seeing as Dial of Destiny was set in 1969. There's also not enough attention devoted to their relationship, so the eventual resolution of that storyline feels insincere.

Among the supporting cast, Indy has plenty of new allies and adversaries portrayed by Ethann Isidore, Toby Jones, Antonio Banderas, and Mads Mikkelsen among others. Isidore's Teddy serves as this film's Short Round analog, tagging along with Helena for the adventure. Mikkelsen's Dr. Voller quickly proves himself to be a formidable antagonist, while his henchmen played by Boyd Holbrook and Olivier Richters felt destined to face off against Indiana Jones. Jones and Banderas also feel at home as friends of Indy but have little to work with. Similarly, John Rhys-Davies returns as Sallah for a glorified cameo. If you've seen the trailers, his "Give them hell, Indiana Jones!" line makes up about a quarter of his screen time, so don't expect him to stick around for long when he shows up. 

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny desperately hopes to unearth your adoration for this franchise without fully understanding why audiences gravitated to this series in the first place. This franchise has endured for over 40 years due to its ingenuity. There's a creative spark with Indiana Jones that set it apart from everything else. Dial of Destiny sorely missed the Lucas & Spielberg touch, so it's the first Indiana Jones movie that feels like it was slapped together on an assembly line. I'm not sure this one belongs in a museum. 

Film Assessment: C

'Life Itself' (2018) Review

As a young New York couple goes from college romance to marriage and the birth of their first child, the unexpected twists of their journey create reverberations that echo over continents and through lifetimes. 

Written and directed by This Is Us series creator Dan Fogelman, Life Itself is a film told in five distinct chapters from the perspective of five different protagonists. Before I continue any further, I'd like to preface my thoughts by informing you that I began watching This Is Us this past summer and instantly adored the acclaimed series. Believe it or not, but I had some reservations about This Is Us. I was reluctant to begin watching the series because I thought it looked like an emotionally-manipulative melodramatic soap opera and didn't feel that it would be up my alley. Nevertheless, I binged the first two seasons in a matter of days and am eagerly awaiting the season three premiere next Tuesday. I say this because I want to communicate that I'm now a fan of Fogelman's work and was rooting for Life Itself to be a smashing success. I sought out the film in spite of its scathing reviews and held out hope I might at least be able to enjoy the motion-picture. However, my faith was tragically misplaced as Life Itself is one of the year's biggest disappointments.

Marketed as a feature-length version of This Is Us, Life Itself proves to be the crude, condensed and confused version. Imagine if you took the thematic material, non-chronological storytelling, and sentimentality of the series, dialed it up to an eleven, shoved it in a blender, and then forcibly pieced everything back together afterward. That concoction is the best possible description of Life Itself. It strangely tries to be Tarantino-esque with tons of vulgarity and hyper-violence while striving to emulate This Is Us' emotional sincerity as well. The amalgamation doesn't work whatsoever because there are jarring tonal inconsistencies between the presentation and the subject matter. Fogelman oddly seeks to portray toxic behavior like unhealthy obsession and abandonment as though they're endearing when they're not. He plays some of this darker material for laughs, and it just leaves you feeling extremely uncomfortable. 

Spread throughout the film are several abrupt tonal shifts which act as shock value for the sake of shock value. I do not particularly appreciate using the term "emotionally manipulative" in my criticism because I think it's well within reason for a filmmaker to try and draw an emotional response from their audience, provided the narrative earn its emotional beats. Ultimately, the filmmaker's goal is to connect with the audience and convince them that they should care or feel something when all is said-and-done. Life Itself fails spectacularly in that regard because it never earns its emotional beats. The situations the characters find themselves in feel needlessly contrived for the sake of cheap sentimentality. Their lives are riddled with tragedy to such an exaggerated extent that it's honestly unbelievable and unrealistic. 

Not to mention the characters are woefully underdeveloped. Where This Is Us is a prime example of a series that earns emotion by fleshing out its characters and crafting genuine drama, Life Itself hardly devotes enough time for the viewer to form a meaningful attachment with any characters. Each chapter lasts anywhere from 15-to-30 minutes, mostly composed of ineffective voiceover narration spoken over romantic montages. Of course, This Is Us has the benefit of being told as a long-form episodic series, but Life Itself backed itself into a corner from the start thanks to its structural approach. Many of these characters lack personality beyond being one-note human sketches. The five chapters follow a depressed man, an angsty young woman, a careful Spanish olive plantation worker, a traumatized college student, and the narrator herself who possesses no worthwhile character traits. A narrative thread connects this multi-generational, cross-continental web of stories, but the chapters are at odds with one another as initially presented. 

Built around the profound thesis that "life is the ultimate unreliable narrator," Life Itself never dives any deeper into its superficial message. I heard those words at least twenty times, but have yet to understand the grand significance of them. Like what the heck does that REALLY mean? I don't know, and I'm sure Fogelman doesn't either. 

If Life Itself has any saving grace, it would undoubtedly be the performances. If it's any consolation, Oscar Isaac, Olivia Wilde, Mandy Patnkin, Olivia Cooke, Sergio Peris-Mancheta, Laia Costa, Àlex Monner, Annette Bening, and Antonio Banderas are all excellent and remain committed to the material in spite of its messiness. Sparks were flying between Isaac and Wilde and Peris-Mancheta and Costa in particular. The tonal disconnect is what tanks this film.

I'm sure fellow viewers of This Is Us are surprised by my incessant rambling (I'd like to think of it as a therapeutic writing exercise), but Life Itself fails in every regard which This Is Us succeeds. Life Itself is so unfathomably absurd that it genuinely needs to be seen to be believed. Amazon Studios is distributing so you can probably expect to see it on Prime Video in a matter of months. If you REALLY want to see it, I'd wait till then. At least it's covered by your Prime membership at that point. Otherwise, Life Itself is indicative of life itself- it's messy, confusing, and very bizarre.

Film Assessment: D