Harrison Ford in 'Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny'

It has been almost a half-century since the titular professor of archaeology punched his first Nazi on the silver screen, but even as he approaches retirement, good old Indy has lost none of his charms. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is a fun romp around the globe, in a race to find one more last relic before it’s too late. For this expedition, Steven Spielberg passes the torch to Logan and Ford V Ferrari director James Mangold, who tries his best to fill some admittedly big shoes. Spielberg's stamp is all over the first four movies, after all. While the transition isn’t totally seamless, Mangold however at least understands Indie and the world he lives in. He shows a grasp of what makes him tick and succeeds in exuding the old pulp hero vibe but in his own particular fashion. Indiana Jones adventures are always meant to not be taken so seriously. Yes, the stakes are high, but the crack of the whip and Harrison Ford’s unflappable cockyness assure the audience that it's all going to be ok and that it's perfectly fine to have fun while saving the world for the upteenth time.
The MacGuffin this time around is the Dial of Destiny, an ancient clock-work device also known as the Antikythera, and is attributed to the old Greek inventor Archaemedes. As in everything Indie has ever hunted after, the ancient artifact has real-world roots, but turns out to be much more than what it seems. And, as always, the object of interest is on the wish-list of some not-well-meaning Nazis. This particular Nazi is Doctor Voller, played with fanatical intensity by Mads Mikkelsen. We see in an extended flashback at the beginning of the movie that he has crossed paths with our hero before, and lost, marking the beginning of a decades long grudge. The whole past storyline takes a good fifteen to twenty minutes, and features younger versions of Ford, Mikkelsen and Toby Jones’ Basil Shaw, a friend and fellow antiquities geek like Indy.
That entire sequence had some of the best digital de-aging work in recent memory, and gives Mangold a chance to show us Indy once again in his prime, before reverting back to old Indy, grumpy, retiring and not quite sure what to do with himself. The sudden arrival of Basil’s daughter, Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller Bridge) sets his old bones off to another wild race against time. Even though he just might be the first to admit that he belongs in a museum, he still charges ahead, working his way through one obstacle after another. The stakes are large as well as personal this time. And with the help of some old friends like the loyal Sallah (John Rhys- Davies) and new ones like the old salt Renaldo, played by Antonio Banderas. Seeing both of them help out was extremely fun but both of them were severely underused. There are some things that seem to be off however, not really altogether wrong, but things that seem off kilter or almost there. While the action was well done, it was very, well, clean.
If anything this is possibly the most kid friendly movie in the series as there’s not very much blood in it, and no one dies particularly horrible deaths. Nothing makes you turn away, or shake your head and think, “Sheesh, what a way to go!” Yes there are some drownings and impalements, but those seem tame when compared to the soldier who was carried screaming into the ant hill by giant ants in Crystal Skull, or the villains getting their faces melted off in Raiders of the Lost Ark. However with that being said, all in all it is a worthy send off for our once-young but still fearless explorer, as this is reportedly the last to be made. It is a fun romp of a movie, with enough of the old school feel to it and just a pinch of nostalgia.