Studio: Disney
Release Date: 12/5/2023
Rating: PG-13
Film Grade: C+/C-
The Story: We’re back to the ending days of World War II, and Indiana Jones is out to retrieve a stolen religious artifact from the Nazis with the help of his friend, Basil Shaw. As it happens in these stories, things quickly go offtrack, and the search for one treasured item accidentally uncovers another.
A quick cut to 1969 finds Jones as a man out of place in a modern world that is more enamored with the future than the past. Forced into retirement, his life seems to have fallen apart. Not only is he without a job, his marriage to Marion has fallen apart, and he leans heavily on alcohol to sooth his soul. But there is a new interest in that artifact he stumbled upon decades before, and paired with the daughter of Basil Shaw, the search for the Dial of Destiney is on.
My Take: FULL DISCLOSURE – I have been a fan of Lucasfilm since seeing the original Star Wars back in 1977, and Indiana Jones has been an inspirational character for me. And while I cheered on the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney over a decade ago, I have not been pleased with the direction they have taken the properties. The vast majority have been soulless endeavors, missing the creative spark that Lucas brought to them and only an empty façade of what they once represented.
Hence the reason why there are two grades showing for this film – one the first as a generic action/adventure film, the second as to how it fits with the earlier installments.
While the plot is straightforward and shallow, there are some good elements to it. The environments are well-done, and the movie does transport the viewer back to different places and times. The action scenes are generally OK as long as you can believe an elderly Harrison Ford can still pack a punch while swiftly dodging another. Much of the de-aging work in the opening sequence was convincing, albeit there were a few digital effects that were clunky enough to stand out. Much of the staging and editing is reminiscent of the other Indy films.
The acting is generally quite good. Harrison Ford still has it, and that eye wink/twinkle combination is in full evidence, although there are a couple of scenes where he looks uncharacteristically baffled and befuddled. As Helena Shaw, Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s spunky, smug, self-centered performance may be either endearing or grating, depending on the viewer. Mads Mikkelsen is the main baddy, and while he’s fine, the character is lacking in depth and nuance.
At 154 minutes, the film is more bloated than it needs to be. The plot is just not complicated enough to justify the runtime. It doesn’t help that some of the sequences are close enough to the earlier movies to feel like lifeless repeats. Callbacks that one might expect to be featured, such as the dissolve from the Paramount logo to the opening setting, are discarded. Others, like those old map transitions that showed worldwide travel, were used inconsistently.
More glaringly, there are moments of the movie that don’t align with Indy’s character. In one sequence we see him lose his cool and panic when he’s covered with crawling bugs, unlike the tarantulas from Raiders of the Lost Ark, or the tunnel sequence from Temple of Doom. And while his character has witnessed the unexplainable, the events haven’t had any long-standing effect on him.
But the biggest break comes at the end of the movie, and for anyone that hasn’t seen it yet, you may want to avoid the rest of this paragraph. Without fully spoiling it, in the first three movies Indy was faced with a moral dilemma and forced to make a tough choice. The standard was set in Raiders with Jones aiming a grenade launcher at the Ark. The dialog between him and Belloq was written and performed in a way that added depth to the character and the story, while also making the audience contemplate the options right along with Indy. And while this was not featured in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, at least it wasn’t mangled the way it is in this movie, where Indy chooses. . . poorly.
And it’s really the whole muddled ending that hurst the movie the most. In addition to the above, it feels cheap, hastily put together, and just doesn’t make a lot of sense. And the epilog that was supposed to pull at heartstrings, just comes across as both pandering and tacked-on. This being the final film, it needed a grand ending that wrapped up all of the adventures, and what we get falls short of that.
Video: This is a great looking disc! It picks up all the details in the sets, props, location shots, and costumes, some draped in shadows, others soaked in sunlight. Most of the special effects come off well enough to at least not stand out as effects, and colors are rich and realistic. And this is just the Blu-ray; I’m sure the 4K disc looks even nicer.
Audio: Although the Blu-ray only comes with a 7.1 DTS-HDMA soundtrack, it is very, very good. A mixture of environments are presented with different soundscapes. There’s an effective use of bass, and the John Williams score doesn’t disappoint in the least. I really wish they would have included the Atmos mix on this disc to see what they did with it, but even 7.1 was surprisingly engaging.
Special Features: There’s a nice series of making-of pieces, although these lean more to the marketing side of things, rather than the transparent documentary style. Still, it was fun to see the actors behind the scenes and some of the real locations and stunt work.
- Chapter 1 – Prologue
- Chapter 2 – New York
- Chapter 3 – Morocco
- Chapter 4 – Sicily
- Chapter 5 – Finale
- Score Only Version of the Movie
Final Verdict: I’ve been an Indiana Jones fan for decades now, buying the movies, Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, comic books, soundtrack (LPs, and later, CDs), roleplaying games, statues, and even one of the officially licensed hats back in the 80s. And that’s the primary lens through which I viewed this movie. In preparation, my wife and I watched the prior four movies a few weeks ago. Raiders will always sit alone at the top of my list, with each of the following movies having their own flaws.
When a fifth Indy movie was first announced back in 2009, I was curious to see how it might turn out. It could be fun to see what had happened to Indy after the end of Crystal Skull. Sure, he would be older, but there are ways to write a script involving older heroes in a way that we haven’t seen before. There could be an exchange of the normal physical action for a more cerebral and experienced one. It would be challenging, but concentrating on character, nuance, and a clever plot hook could extend the franchise for one last run.
Then the delays began, and it would be more than a decade later that filming actually started. Spielberg dropped out. The first two Disney Star Wars prequels had come out, and were massively disappointing. They took Ford’s character of Han Solo and turned him into a regressive loser, a faded shadow of a hero. Would they do the same to Indy? My cautious optimism turned sour, and it wasn’t something I was looking forward to anymore.
The good news in all of this is that the movie isn’t as horrible as I had imagined. While it falls short as an Indiana Jones movie, it’s passable as a mindless action-adventure film. Think along the lines of the various Tomb Raider films, or the recent Uncharted, The Lost City, or director James Mangold’s earlier Knight and Day.
I don’t think I’ll be revisiting this one or adding it to my library, but I was glad that I watched it, and found it mildly entertaining, in a generic sort of way. But it didn’t quite cut it as an Indiana Jones title.
If you’ve been OK with what Disney has done with the Lucasfilm properties and are looking for a new adventure movie, check it out. And for a much more complimentary non-spoiler review, be sure to read Barry's earlier take on his theatrical viewing
here.
Fun Fact: Yes, there is a requisite Wilhelm scream in the movie.
My Review System:JVC DLA-RS3100 4K Ultra High-Definition Front Projector
Elite Screens Sable Frame B2 117” Width with Infinitely Variable Height
Monolith by Monoprice HTP-1 16 Channel Processor with Dirac Live
Monolith by Monoprice 7x200 Watts Amp
Monolith by Monoprice 3x200 Watts + 6x100 Watts Amp
JBL Studio 590 for Left, Center, Right, Wides, and Rears
JBL Studio 580 for Side Surrounds
JBL Studio SCS 8 for Tops
JTR Captivator 1400 Subwoofer X 4
Panasonic DP-UB420 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Player
NVIDIA Shield Android TV - 4K
Xbox One X
HTPC Running madVR (work in progress)
Remote: URC MX-780
Mini DSP 2X4 HD controlling all subwoofers
APC S15 Power Conditioner with Battery Backup
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