The Reel Rejects - INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY - Movie Review!! (Non Spoiler)

Episode Date: June 23, 2023

RIGHT OUT OF THE THEATER! Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny Movie Review (Non-Spoiler) where we give our Honest Thoughts on Indiana Jones 5 Act-By-Act Breakdown. Harris Ford Returns to low critical reception, so we tempered our expectations, and thought hey - it might just be fun! So was it?! So let’s talk about the nostalgic throwback, action-adventure movie where Phoebe Waller-Bridge joins the cast, Mads Mikkelsen is the villain, Steven Spielberg does not return to direct but is instead helmed by James Mangold (Logan), George Lucas of Lucasfilm produces, Mads Mikkelsen is the villain, Boyd Holdbrook is there, in what they set out to be an emotionally-charged story with thrilling action sequences with some questionable De-Aging…but is it a worthy send off for the franchise? THE SEO GAME: Indiana Jones trailer, Indiana Jones release date, Indiana Jones reviews, Indiana Jones cast, Indiana Jones plot, Indiana Jones fan theories, Indiana Jones Easter eggs, Indiana Jones behind-the-scenes, Indiana Jones trivia, Indiana Jones merchandise #indianajones #indianajones5 #thedialofdestiny #moviereview #actionadventure #harrisonford#phoebewallerbridge #madsmikkelsen #summerblockbuster #disney #lucasfilm #stevenspielberg #hansolo #indy Become A Super Sexy Reject For Full-Length T.V. & Movie Reactions! https://www.patreon.com/thereelrejects Support The Channel By Checking Out Our Bomb A** Merch: http://shopzeroedition.com/collections/reel-rejects-merch POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-reel-rejects/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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What is going on there, citizens of the Reject Nation? We just got out of watching Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. And I just got out of, I mean, like 15 minutes ago, we saw it at a theater nearby. Once we found a reasonably quiet spot to set up and film it, they were literally po-po right around. I was like, I'm dealing with this in Burbank today, especially for this movie. We're just going to go to my backyard, still do it standing, so it feels a little bit more like we just got out of the theater.

So ladies and gentlemen, please go ahead. Wich! Friends of Friends for Hey. Whopo! Whip that like button. Before we go into our review for this, let's give you guys a little plot synopsis of what this movie's all about. All right, so Indy's old. He's like really old, but he's got his trademarked Fidora and his whip at the ready. Because he's on a mission to retrieve a powerful artifact that could shake the very foundations of history. But he's not alone on this quest. Joined by his goddaughter, Indy's got more than just ancient booby traps and deadly foes to contend with.

He's got to keep up with a whip-smart young companion who's just as eager to uncover the secrets of the past. And speaking of foes, watch out for Yerunvala! This former Nazi might work for NASA now, but he's still up to his old Nazi tricks, you Nazis, and he'll stop at nothing to get his hands on the dial of destiny. It's a race against time as Indian and his goddaughter. They navigate these treacherous ruins, sort of, and outwit their enemies, sort of. Will they retrieve the dial of destiny before it's too late? Did it warn a less than mediocre five-minute standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival?

We're here to tell you right now if it does. We only talked about it during the credits. We didn't ride together to the theater. I was thinking about how we could structure this to convey our experiences. We're mainly on the same page. I feel like there's one thing we're not really on the same page about. I feel like the best way to go about it is to go through it, act by act, of the emotional experience we were feeling through it.

John, do you remember in Indiana Jones, of the Lost Arc when he switches out the bag. Oh. The artifact of the bag. I think he has a mixed bag in there. Oh. I think he has just mixed back. Now that's an ancient artifact.

Act one's the prolog that it seems like everyone's keen to spoil for you guys. So I'm going to do it right now too. It starts off in the 1940s setting up everything to come. You got this young Indiana Jones and then you see how they get their hands on half of the dial of destiny. of destiny, how it's being kept by the Nazis, led by Mads Mikkelson, Indiana Jones is teamed up with Figuil Walter Bridges, dad played by Toby Jones. It's a prologue that's supposed to feel like the old Indiana Jones movies. John, you have way more of a nostalgic love for Indiana Jones than I do. What did you think about that prolog? I thought the prologue was decent. It kind of went

halfway for me. I mean, the first thing you notice, obviously, is the de-aging technology on Harrison Ford, which at times looks pretty amazing. And another time, has all the pitfalls that we've come to expect from that particular effect but that aside yeah it's a fun you know clipy adventurous prologue it sets everything up it you know is indicative i think of the pace the rest of the movie kind of has it moves it's sort of a breakneck kind of speed but there is a lot of fun there there's a good sort of imagination and a nice contained wraparound to it all before the main venture sets off yeah it's like crazy ass shit that indian is pulling off yes in this adventure right Beyond just the de-aging, which did have this emotional journey of,

wow, that looks great to, ooh, I don't know about that, to sometimes same shot being like, whoa, that looks real. Wait, his mouth is moving. That looks off. That looks really off. And his voice sounds just as old as he does in the present. The annunciation ain't matching. This looks great when you're not showing him talk.

I like it when he's not talking. It was never quite immersive because it was constantly fluctuating between it. And I feel like a general audience member of what experience as I'm not just talking about people with that critical lie. I did enjoy it. I thought it ended up being like a lot of fun. It felt a little bit like they were trying to capture the spirit instead of genuinely being the spirit there. But for the most part, you know, I'd be lying if I said I didn't actually enjoy it. But then I started to love the movie because then we really kick off Act 1 where you step from like the fantasy of Indiana Jones into the harsh old man reality of Indiana.

He has washed up old guy. The first shot of Harrison Ford of today. Minor spoiler, very vulnerable. He is shirtless, out of shape, cranky, hung over. He's in a terrible mood on the day of his retirement, which also happens to be moon day. The day the Americans reach the moon. All by ourselves with no help from anyone from elsewhere in the world.

I imagine maybe some people might react to it with the... Oh my God, are they Luke Skywalkering this? Are they last Jedi? our Indiana Jones throw the whip over his shoulder in disdain I think it works better here because of the fact that Indiana Jones is just a human being and I loved the portrayal here because they were setting up some really interesting things I can't spoil for you guys because there were some personal life struggles that he's going through here that raised the question mark of stuff like what's going on with the Indiana Jones's son what's going on with Karen Allen they do acknowledge that it really is intertwined with what Indiana Jones is dealing with so I don't want to give it away but I loved what they set up and I love the way it was all playing out. I love the aesthetics, the production design, the whole vibe and aura and the mood. And that's when you meet Phoebe Waller Bridges character, Helena, who is his goddaughter and you see this instant chemistry where there's this twinkle back in Harrison Ford's eye feeling good about the past. And then she wants to find the other half

of the dial of destiny for a lot of her own reasons, right? And then it leads into this adventure where people, of course, you got, like, Mads Mikkelson, you got Boyd Holbrook. They're all, like, chasing after her, so they're chasing after her. That's where you see all that stuff in the trailer with the big parade and Indy on the horse and the train, like the main good stuff. I loved it. I mean, did you love, I, I loved, like, all of that. Like, the whole, like, that whole, like, 20-minute chunk, that tension at stakes, it had a rousing spirit to it. I loved all of it.

I was like, I don't know what all these critics are talking about. Yeah, yeah. This movie's a blast. Absolutely. And it's cool to see him. 60s in a slightly different context and setting, you know, in the city, all that stuff. And then, and then you got to get Indiana Jones overseas across the world. Slowly but surely, everything about the movie started to not work for me.

It started feeling rote, monotonous, perfunctory, like the pacing, started feeling dull. Everything started feeling forced. It started feeling like James Mangold was at a crossroads between the kind of movies he wanted to make. because in the beginning of it, it seemed like, oh, he's kind of doing a bit of like a Logan approach, but not like as heavy or harrowing, but with the Indiana Jones backdrop, you know, and I thought that was great, because it was really clicking. Like all the tones were just, it was perfect. I'm like, what a great sequel setup, the legacy sequel. Great job. And then here, it's like they set up all these things with Indiana Jones being this like elderly guy who's like been out of the game and all these

things. And then when he gets back overseas, it's just kind of like, we're supposed to forget about all that. He's just moving along, no problem. And then more importantly, it's just the pacing of it just became so boring. How would you describe the, I think we, we jerked about it in the middle of the movie of what the basic structure was. Well, yeah, it's like Indiana Jones will arrive at a place. He'll have an argument usually with Phoebe Waller Bridge or somebody. They'll establish like the next destination or the next MacGuffin they got to go get. And then, oh, Matt's Mickelson shows up and now we've got to have a fight and now we've got to move on to the next place. And you'll forget about Mads Mickelson for a while while they repeat that cycle. And then he'll

show up again to be one step behind everything and the cycle repeat. Everything just started feeling like it was trying to be Indiana Jones, the old movies, instead of just being its own thing, which surprised me because I'm like, James Bangle, come on, man, just do your own thing. You usually do your own thing. Why is this the least I have felt your voice in a movie? And you've done franchise movies, too. And yeah, I mean, with the McGuffins, it just becomes, now they got it, and now we got it.

Now they got it, now we got it. And there's not really much of like a visual flavor. or a dynamic to the pacing. Or to the characters. Yeah, it moves in kind of a mono type of pace that is just chop, chop, chop, and it feels very much a victim of, you know, the modern blockbuster sensibility

where I feel like it really could have benefited from some of the breathing room and the tangibility that the original movies it is trying to emulate had. It takes you across the world to all these exotic locations, but you don't really feel like you're spending much time there. And even the tombs and the puzzles and stuff like that

are like pretty brief. I would find myself getting into a moment being like, yeah, now this is Indiana Jones. Oh, oh, we're moving on, okay. Here's what I'll say. I think Harrison Ford is excellent here. It's easily. There's no question about it.

He's doing great work. It's his most emotional performance of the Indiana Jones films. He really cares. He's not just showing up and pretending to be Indiana Jones. Like, he really cares. It shows in this film,

shows in the interviews and the press that he does for it, specifically this portrayal. They have some emotional moments here that I thought they really could have played into like there's a line in the trailer where Harrison Ford, he's saying it's not about what you believe, it's about how hard

you believe, so you kind of think that that's what this movie is going to be about. But no, it's not, like, they have a scene where they say it, but it's not really demonstrated. And nor does that matter in this movie. And I mean, the particular plot that they're going after isn't something he is especially

passionate about as a character. Exactly. And that actually undercuts a lot of the fun of the journey, because Harrison Ford himself, his whole purpose of going on this is, I'm just trying to clear my name for not getting blame for shit that happened because I'm retired I just want to sleep in my apartment. I just want to enjoy my retirement like he has no real vested interest in this to like I need the trailers try to trick you into thinking but I've been looking for this all my life

this is the journey I never got to finish and now I'm going to finish it the trailers are trying to tell you that but that's not what's happening here the movie tries to trick you think it's like doing this it's going to crescendo into this theme of something but no no you get the crescendo moment without the entire movie that ought to have preceded it to really sell what the emotions of that real climax ought to be. Phoebe Waller Bridge, that's where I feel like you and I

are kind of on a disagreement here. Because I am 100% sexist and I agree with the entire sexist side of the internet. Oh my God, Philly Butler Bayer really? And I want her to be Indiana Jones. Yeah, that's what I was hoping for. And we got it. It's not as cut and dry as that.

I don't want a sign I don't like her. I started off with, oh, she's charming to. I don't like the way you're reading. You're kind of annoying. To eventually, within the last like 40 to 45 minutes of this, I really started to like her a lot. And I feel like she and Harrison Ford have easily some of the best scenes in this movie. Close to the end of this film.

By the end of it, I really liked her a lot. Yeah, I liked the two of them together. I thought the emotion of that and just what they were at least alluding to, even if it wasn't always in the dialogue and whatever, just the aura of their shared relationship was really lovely. And I liked her, you know, like knowledgeable but feisty kind of persona. I feel like, even though people love to complain about that these days, it's well at home in a world like this,

and you can see how she's reigniting that spark for him. I like that a lot. And even her, you know, having her own little short-round guy kind of made for a nice, just interesting beat for that character, even if that was nowhere near as engaging or, you know, lovable as actual short-round. Yeah, it was kind of okay to be. It's more like, hey, remember short-round?

Well, we got a much more restrained version here. We got a lot more restrained versions of everything, remember and that's the thing is everyone's comparing this to crystal skull and I'm like in some ways crystal skull has more like flavor and takes more swings and in some ways this one is much more kind of akin to what you want but really they both kind of balance out to me by the end of the day I would actually I would meet you on that then you got Mads Mickelson here who is yes a ruthless cunning scientist Nazi guy who was going forward to this more real like menace gravitas portrayal like you see Mads Mickelson do in movies. Yeah, like you wanted him to go bigger, which feels like the plot could

have warranted it for sure. Yeah, they leave some things on the table. Yeah, and his obsession. I just feel like, you know, given that it's Indiana Jones, I don't mind a different take on a villain, but, you know, I mean, escalated into madness. That's part of what we do here. Yeah, yeah. I can see where you're coming from because, again, a lot of this came down to its energy and it's feeling like they were trying to capture the spirit, but it was dragging. I think where James Mangold and Company, I don't really know where this movie went wrong for it, because it clearly

went wrong for a lot of people, where I thought they were trying to be a little bit deceitful here, a little manipulative. Like, they had this crazy, cool action scene when they were first overseas. Car chase that you see a lot of, and the trailers. And I like the car chase, sure, it was cool. I didn't feel any, like, tension or any, but I noticed something was often. I was like,

this doesn't feel genuinely exciting. This just feels like I'm watching some cool shots here and there, but I don't find this exciting. It's not as tangible. Like, I think Indiana Jones, especially, I think, doesn't work well. It's not like swinging monkey vines level, but yeah. No, but even that I'll forgive because I'm like, well, you need CG for that, I guess. But yeah, they relied too heavily on CG in these recent Indiana Joneses where the previous ones would have had to have made a lot of it practically and then resorted to visual effects.

Yeah, then any following action scenes, I don't even remember what really happens. Honestly, like, they all just started. blending together, and they don't really distinguish themselves too much. So if you're able to have fun with this movie, like a lot of people who have been able to come out of this film going, I don't care what critics say, because I thought I was, I thought I was becoming that guy. Yeah, yeah, I wanted to be. In the first, like, 30 minutes, I was like, oh, my God, yeah, I'm that, I'm that guy.

Then as I said, what, I was like, no, this is, this is tough. This is, this is really boring. This is a really boring film because I'm bringing up all the characters due to the fact that this movie set up so many things that it's not just Greg having, like, wish fulfillment needs. It's what the movie set up. And I thought, okay, there's some interesting things here.

Mads Mikkelson in the prologue. Like, wow, what a great way to make him more than just another Nazi. This guy should have a very personal vendetta against Andy, especially after what happens to this guy. No, it doesn't even seem like it's brought up ever in the conversations. And then would Phoebe Waller Bridge and him, it just felt like banter and not anything with real depth

until close to the end of this film. It feels like there were two drafts of this that were very much at war. And they're like four-credited writers. It feels like one of them was just the adventure and just the plot beats and stuff. And then there was a different version where it's like, let's do the send-off

ride into the sunset, you know, embracing your age story. And I really feel like they kept one or two, three beats from that personal story and then mostly went with the big action blockbuster, which is fine, but these movies are capable of doing both.

I know people argue, You don't come to Indiana Jones for a drama or a character study, but with the amount of love the series is garnered and the way it's tied to Harrison Ford and with movies like Maverick or even the John Wicks in acknowledging the age of their stars and letting them kind of break that fourth wall, they really missed an opportunity to do that here.

Like Harrison Ford's portrayal of his walk of life at this point as Indiana Jones is lovely when you get to glimpse it, but they don't spend much time on that. However, in the finale, and maybe some of you guys have heard this, This is when the movie decides to try something different. I like the different thing they did. I thought there was a cool mood and aura about it. There were some great visuals to it.

There's some emotional heft. And I really love the final scene of this movie. It's a great wraparound for this specific journey of what Indiana is going through and his personal life and the adventure he just went on. It's got great nostalgia beats to it in a way that felt like I actually had to remind myself like people started like chuckling at these certain things that were happening. And I, like I said, I'm not like massively in love with the films. So I had to like check myself and go like, what's the, oh, yes, that's what, that's what it is. Yeah, the callback, right.

Yeah. But that being said, I thought it was still working really well for me, even without immediately recognizing what the callback was. In the finale, it doesn't necessarily redeem the experience, though, while I can isolate and go, I like that chunk. It's a swing, at least. Yeah. It was cool. it doesn't ultimately redeem the experience that it left me wood for the most of this film, which was, this is disappointing.

I cannot underscore the word trying even more than I can now. It is, you just feel the word trying. It's busy and dense without being rich. Yeah. Overall, for me, I would be like a 52% on this movie, honestly. I cannot, I cannot say that over, like, that 50% that I'm recommended is like, all of the the first half hour where I loved it. And then the finale parts were like, yeah, it was nice.

Sure, sure. I mean, yeah, on a generous day, I might go to like 60%. But really, it is in that 50 range because I think some people, as demonstrated with a lot of the responses, some people are going to love it, some people are going to feel like us. And at the end of it, I just wasn't really moved a lot by much. What is your favorite Indiana Jones movie? Leave your thoughts down below. You can subscribe, leave a like.

Did you like this one? We will talk with you all soon. Thank you.