Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny - Rare, Plain Gems

 

Something I never would have predicted happened to me this summer: a new Indiana Jones movie came out, and I didn’t make a point to watch it. To be clear, this isn’t because Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ruined the series for me (I actually like Skull, but I understand why others hate it). I didn’t watch Dial immediately because of Disney.

I’ve written before about how Disney has altered my fandom of Star Wars. Essentially, I still like the franchise, but there’s so much now (all the movies and TV shows) where there was once so little (six main movies and cartoons and EU stuff that could be ignored, if you like) that it became just another bloated franchise to me. I still like it, but it’s no longer a big deal. 

Indiana Jones is different. This is the first, and supposedly only, project they’ve created for the franchise. Because of this, and the announcement of James Mangold as director, I was initially excited. There weren’t five TV shows or a bunch of recap videos I had to watch to understand who was who and what was going on. This was going to be a simple return to the world of Indiana Jones. 

Then I saw the tepid response from Letterboxd entries and reviews. It was a resounding, “That was certainly an Indiana Jones movie,” or “Well, it was better than Crystal Skull.” Honestly, I would have been more excited if people had been calling it the worst in the franchise. I’ll take total dogshit over “meh” any day when it comes to movies. It appeared, based on the snippets of reviews and responses I read, that Disney had played it safe, so I figured I could wait until this came to Disney+ or was cheap on Vudu (I went with Vudu, but it is now on Disney+.)

When I finally got around to watching it in late November, I was pleasantly surprised by Dial. The lowered expectation certainly helped, but I enjoyed this final Indy movie. Like others, I didn’t think it reached the heights of the original films, but it was a lot more fun than people had been letting on. But after a rewatch and thinking about it a bit, I realized that Disney had changed my fandom again.

Disney’s treatment of Star Wars has lowered my expectations to the point that average is now great. Yes, Dial is pretty forgettable as a final film in one of cinema’s most beloved action franchises, but it’s not a completely soulless cash grab that sets up a dozen other shows, movies, and games, so…thumbs up?

It saddens me a little that Disney has turned my once fiery fandom into a defeated acceptance of whatever they churn out, but it’s probably for the best. No one wants to read a forty-year-old dude rant and rave about Indiana Jones. (Based on my site numbers, no one wants to read what this forty-year-old dude has to say about anything, but that’s understandable, there’s a lot of us on the internet.)

Still, Disney had a chance to do something a little different here. They claim that the series is over, and no one is taking over the role. Assuming they plan to stick with that plan (and I think they will, at least until Ford and Lucas have been gone for a few years), Dial could have been the rare true ending for a franchise. But instead, it felt like the middle. 

*SPOILERS BEYOND*

They had a chance to either kill off Indy or let him live out his final days in the distant past. Instead, he’s brought back home to experience a Mutt-less version of the ending of Crystal Skull, even down to him grabbing the hat back at the end instead of letting it go. 

I understand why they didn’t want to kill him off; it’s an unnecessary and predictable bummer of an end. But why introduce time travel and not let him stay in the past? The character is arguing to be left there, and as an audience member I was supposed to be on Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s side saying, “No, you have to live!” But instead, I was thinking, “This makes sense for you as a character. Enjoy your final days goofing off with Archimedes.” 

But the Disney machine is incapable of doing something like that. Even with their bullshit about actually ending the series, they still made sure to include a younger version of Indy in the form of the never-before-mentioned goddaughter played by Waller-Bridge. And you know she’s there just in case her character somehow becomes beloved and the film is astronomically successful (neither of which happened), so that Disney has somewhere to go beyond Harrison Ford. 

Perhaps I’m being too cynical, and Waller-Bridge is simply here to inject some young energy into the series. Fine, but that’s also something Disney seems to always try and fail to do. It’s this obvious attempt to placate old fans (“Here’s Harrison Ford, we brought Sallah back! Do you love us yet?”) and new fans (“We know you kids don’t know who these old men are, but what about this lady and this Short-Round facsimile? Do you love us yet?”), and it almost always leaves both sides feeling indifferent. I would rather they just let someone make a true film without having to consider anything like that. But it seems like writers and directors are given a list of shit that must happen in these movies, and they have to try to sneak in a good movie somewhere in the middle of it all. 

But I claimed I liked this, right? I really do. Disney has changed my fandom, but I’m still capable of enjoying Indiana Jones on a surface level. And this film has all the things I want from the series: ridiculous punch sound effects, Nazis as the bad guys, chase scenes, John Williams(ish) music, slightly true historical stuff, some supernatural stuff, etc. And when I wasn’t being taken out of the film by some of the weaker elements (it’s too long, the de-aging stuff is a little distracting, etc.), I had a good time with it. And I’ve watched it three times now, and I still enjoy it each time.

Sure, when I stop and think about Dial of Destiny as the final Indiana Jones film, it doesn’t hold up. But that’s no way to watch a movie like this. When I watch it just to watch it; it’s fun, and that’s it. 

Disney or any other film company is not capable of recreating the magic of the films of my childhood. You can’t replicate the past, and they should stop trying, and we should stop expecting them to be able to do it in the first place. So I know I’m not getting anything special from Disney. But I have come to appreciate the rare, plain gems that they’ve produced over the years, and The Dial of Destiny is one of them.

Random Thoughts

This should have been the No Time to Die of the series (flawed, but at least the character [at least this version] is unequivocally done. Instead, it was more like the Moonraker, not as bad as you’d think, but certainly not special.

Took me a couple viewings, but I noticed that instead of the Paramount mountain transition that started the first four entries, we get the Lucasfilm logo transitioning into a lock on the back of a truck…lame.

Aside from the foreboding music at the very beginning (and the iconic flourishes here and there), the score is a bit of a letdown.

I don’t mind the de-aging, but the voice is definitely still aged.

After Mikkelsen survived that hit to the head on the train, I expected there to be a supernatural twist, like he had already used the dial to go back and save himself or something (I know, I know, paradox blah blah blah, but that’s time travel for you). For him to have simply survived it is crazy, even for this series.

The chase scenes are okay, but way too long. Trim those down and maybe this thing gets closer to two hours, which would be a vast improvement.

What is up with the one CIA dude on crutches? Holbrook even asks how he broke his ankle. Did I miss something, or is this an even lamer version of C-3PO's red arm?

Like Star Wars, so much has happened between movies. Mutt joined the military to piss Indy off? First off, they seemed to be on pretty good terms at the end of Crystal Skull. Second, Mutt didn’t seem to be a big fan of authority. Sure, he was nineteen in that movie, but I don’t see how you go from rebellious (as in literally dressed like Marlon Brando’s character in The Wild One who is a rebel just for the sake of being one) to joining the military when you hit thirty. 

I’m typically not a fan of underwater diving sequences…and I’m still not.

“My friend was just murdered!” Thanks, Indy, I was thinking the same thing.

“They’re not going to hurt him.” You mean the Nazis who have literally killed everyone in their path so far? Yeah…

“Bring him.” But why? I get that the movie can’t just let Indy lie there and die in the cave, but at least have Mikkelsen explain why they need to bring him. Just have him say something like, “I may need help with the calculations” or something equally generic to justify it.

The Ear of Dionysus is no Petra, but it's still a cool real world location. 

They really fucked up not leaving Indy in the past. Why do basically a repeat of the Crystal Skull ending even down to the hat fake out? I just don't get it.

For Better or Worse, George Lucas Didn't Have to Answer to Anyone

*Notes: I refer to George Lucas basically creating the first six Star Wars films entirely by himself. Of course, this isn't true as hundreds of people, including other directors and writers, created the films. My main point is that he had total creative control over the series and could change anything he wanted. 

Also, while I posit that it might be better if Lucas had not sold to Disney, overall, I am still optimistic about the future of Star Wars because, as a true fan, I think that more Star Wars is ultimately better than no Star Wars...for now.

“I think the fans are going to love it. It’s very much the kind of movie they’ve been looking for.” This was George Lucas’s response to The Force Awakens, and after seeing both that film and The Last Jedi, two things have occurred to me in regards to that quote. One, the new Star Wars films are essentially fan films, made by fans attempting to give the fans what they want. And two, I wish Lucas had never sold Star Wars to Disney.

That quote explains exactly why I have issues with the new movies. They were made in an effort to give the fans what they want. The problem is what fans want isn’t necessarily good for the film, not to mention that Star Wars fans are notoriously divided about what they like in the series. Most of all, fans are meant to wait for new material, not dictate it. This is why George Lucas should have held onto Star Wars. Like it or not, what he made was Star Wars. He told the stories he wanted to tell how he wanted to tell them, and he did not seem to care about fan feedback. Lucas didn’t create perfect films (he obviously agrees with this since he had a habit of going back and altering the original films), but he made the films he wanted to make.

It feels like Disney is just placating fans, and plenty of people seem fine with it. But I’m disappointed. My biggest problem (which is likely never to be fixed) is that these new films do not feel like Star Wars films. Sure, they look and sound like Star Wars movies, but something is missing. I cannot point to anything specific aside from the fact that Lucas is not involved. Without Lucas, these are fan films, and fan films, while at times impressive, are never as good as the real thing. That’s not likely to change, and I’ll have to accept that. But part of me wishes Lucas had never sold to Disney. Part of me wishes the series stopped for good after the prequels. I can’t believe I even partially feel that way, but The Last Jedi has really left me disappointed with this series. Star Wars was still sacred to me before the new films, and now it’s quickly turning into just another bloated franchise.

As I pointed out in my previous articles, I did not think that The Last Jedi took Star Wars in a new direction. I wish it had, but I saw far too many similarities to Empire and Return of the Jedi to consider it a very original entry in the series. I don’t blame writer/director Rian Johnson completely for this. It seems to me that he was also disappointed with The Force Awakens, which is why he dismissed so much of it while also speeding through the inevitable retreads of Empire and Return of the Jedi. For doing this, Disney is giving him his own trilogy, which I look forward to since he won’t be beholden to anyone but himself. This situation is exactly what’s wrong with Disney’s approach to the series.

Lucas had total control over the series. Of course, total control leads to a few issues. Lucas obviously didn’t do everything by himself, but he was the final decision-maker, and he did not have to answer to anyone. That led to Jar Jar Binks and some truly abysmal romantic dialogue, but it also led to some amazing lightsaber action and a totally fulfilling character arc for Obi-Wan Kenobi, among other things. It led to a singular vision for the series. Disney threw that out the window when they decided to hire different directors for each film, but there is hope.

Disney saw something in Rian Johnson, but it seems like they also realized that he messed with the direction of the core films. How else do you explain giving Johnson his own trilogy while also handing Episode IX back to J. J. Abrams? It’s possible that they regret not having Abrams write and direct the entire trilogy. At this point, I wish they had. Sure, it’s likely that Abrams would have continued on the rehash path he started, but at least it would have been consistent. Now that he’s back in charge, we might see the mysteries and plots abandoned by Johnson revisited. If that’s the case, then this is going to end up being a sloppy trilogy. (And that’s how I will refer to it: there’s the original trilogy, the prequel trilogy, and the sloppy trilogy.)

This is something you never had to worry about with Lucas’s films. If a mystery was set up in the original trilogy, it was explained. And everything you still had questions about was explained in the prequels. The Lucas films may have their inconsistencies, but at least he never set up a bunch of mysteries, and then handed off the next film to someone else.

Perhaps the biggest problem is that the story wranglers at Disney obviously did not come up with a master plan for all these writer/directors-for-hire. Lucas took six films to tell the complete story of Darth Vader. Where do you go from there? How do these new films fit into that aside from his children and his grandchild still being around? And if we are moving on from Star Wars being about Skywalkers primarily, then what is the overall story arc for the new trilogy? Does anyone even know?

My biggest concern is Disney. Lucas may have been all about toys and allowing people to create new Star Wars books, games, cartoons, etc. But it was all separate from the core movies. In other words, you could ignore all the side stuff if you wanted, or you could take a deep dive in the expanded universe for more Star Wars. How long before Disney makes it seem like a requirement to play the games, read the books, and watch the cartoons? This already happened on a minor scale with C-3P0’s stupid red arm in Force Awakens. He mentions the arm, but it’s dismissed and never explained...unless you read a comic book that explains it. It’s fine if there are books and whatnot that fill in the blanks between Jedi and Force Awakens, but to point out some stupid little detail in a movie in the hopes of selling a few comic books is distracting, stupid, and troubling. It starts with a red arm, but it might lead to an entire character’s fate being left to some other media you have to buy. Lucas would create extra characters just to make toys of them, sure, but it wasn’t as obvious and/or distracting as the red arm.

The Last Jedi didn’t introduce any red arm nonsense, but by abandoning so many mysteries, it did leave the door open for major story details to be hashed out in other places. Is there going to be a Snoke comic book origin? Will the Knights of Ren be explained in a video game? If so, then fuck Disney. Also, fuck me for being stupid enough to read that comic book and play that videogame. Lucas allowed you to dork out if you wanted to; Disney might be making it a requirement.

Finally, Lucas being a one man show meant something else: there were only so many movies he could make. Since he was unwilling to let other people completely take over new films, he only made one at a time. And he took his time. Each release was special and exciting. Now, we’re looking at a yearly Star Wars movie forever. How long before this turns into Marvel fatigue? Sure, Marvel is chugging along just fine, but personally, I haven’t felt that need to watch the last four or five Marvel movies in the theater because it’s all getting too familiar or convoluted. Can I watch Thor: Ragnarok if I haven’t watched Doctor Strange? It feels like homework. Is this going to happen to Star Wars? I sincerely hope not. But one thing’s for sure, if George Lucas was still in charge, this isn’t something I would have to worry about. There probably would never have been another Star Wars movie if that was the case, but right now that seems better. Too much of a good thing is can be bad. Too much of a mediocre thing is much worse.