There is a popular legend that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull does not exist. It could be thatIndiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny soon joins him in the Bermuda Triangle of cinema. While James Mangold and lucasfilm only had to deliver a copy without too many flaws to give Harrison Ford a last lap in the shoes of the famous adventurer, they only reinforced the feeling that this saga should have ended at its original trilogy.
2h30 of modern blockbuster devoid of charm, interest and sometimes even meaning.
The Dial of Destiny strength Indy to put on the costume again to unlock the secrets of an ancient dial split in two by Archimedes, which could call into question everything we know about the very concept of time. His goddaughter Helena Shawdaughter of a close friend created on the job in the person of the archaeologist Basil Shawwants to get his hands on the artifact coveted by his deceased father for pecuniary reasons, in the same way as Jürgen Vollera Nazi scientist converted into an aerospace engineer for the NASA. This necessarily brings a chase through the world where the bad guys are always one step ahead or one step behindin the greatest tradition of Indiana Jones style adventure films.
Nothing to whip a cat about? Certainly, but where we expected from this Indiana Jones 5 that it at least reaches the (low) standards of the many feature films that were inspired by the original trilogy, it offers A legacywhat without flavor, without idea, without humor. Apart from its preposterous finale, no scene has any impact, whether by its narrative force or its dramatic ideas, James Mangold seems to have lost all his know-how to offer only close shots with rapid editing which do not fail to even hold the viewer’s attention.
The action scenes are dark and messy, and only hint at staging concepts without ever marking or even entertaining. Long chase sequences flout the laws of physics and mechanics shamelesslyand some of the special effects are terrible, especially when it comes to animating the body of a rejuvenated adventurer at the deepfake, a technology that definitely does not take despite all the technological advances. The writing is not to be outdone, with insignificant dialogues, without emotion even during forceps meetings with faces of the past, and punch lines that made us roll our eyes to the back of our seat. Only Phoebe Waller-Bridge, full of spirit and glibness, seems to have fun in this heap of boredom, alongside a young Ethann Isidore clearly misdirected, and a Mads Mikkelsen whose so natural charisma does not pierce more the screen than that, not helped by a villain role with murky ambitions. Even Harrison Ford seems absent, as long as it does not print the film and no longer has its aura of yesteryear, during physical and verbal contests. And what about the roles of Shaunette Renée Wilson and Antonio Banderas, dispatched before they even became interesting.
From the undrinkable introductory scene, which culminates in yet another fight scene in a moving train, we had the impression that we were going to have a bad time, and it did not fail. We have only been kept in suspense by the desire to know what Archimedes’ dial really had in store, an artifact that gives rise to a surreal and highly questionable final arc that at least has the merit of lifting us out of our torpor. Whatever its scope or its symbolism, this finale could not reach its target with us, weary of these 2h30 of modern blockbuster devoid of charm, interest and sometimes even meaning, where a simple adventure film to codes 80s would have sufficed. Let’s leave the old things in the closet and, please, stop producing big productions without the slightest cinematographic or script idea behind them.
Note : 1 star out of 5
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is available on Blu-ray from €14.50 on Amazon.co.uk.
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