An Indiana Jones movie about an artefact that can time travel, if only it was real then I could travel back to the time before I wasted 2 hours and 22 minutes on this rather tired feature, with that said though however, there was one saving grace. Here’s my Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny IMAX Review.

Daredevil archaeologist Indiana Jones races against time to retrieve a legendary dial that can change the course of history. Accompanied by his goddaughter, he soon finds himself squaring off against Jürgen Voller, a former Nazi who works for NASA.
After Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull I was adamant that it was the last movie as this tired instalment of the franchise went out with a whimper but alas here we are with another instalment and well, it’s better than Kingdom of the Crystal Skull so we have our silver lining but as far as it being needed or wanted, it feels a little lost on me.
I was hoping to bring a really positive Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny IMAX review but sadly it wasn’t meant to be.
One last adventure sees Indy on the verge of retirement until encountering Helena ‘Wombat’ Shaw (played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge) who takes him on one last adventure to get a hold of the Dial of Destiny with a surviving Nazi (played by Mads Mikkelsen) also hot on its tale to find the artefact.
I have to get this out in the open first and foremost. Whoever wrote Helena’s character didn’t need to make her such an arrogant intolerable stereotypical British snob. Every fight sequence or chase where her life was at stake I was voting in favour of the bad guys shooting her, her accidentally falling or any other variety of ways she could meet her demise early.
Her character was so insufferably stuck up that it was annoying me to watch. Phoebe Waller-Bridge is a fantastic actress and she very clearly did her job spectacularly here but whoever wrote the character really didn’t need to make the character so ridiculously hard to route for.
The movies opening saw a CGI de-aged Harrison Ford fill in some context of a backstory for the dial and its pursuit by a nazi physicist but whilst the CGI looked good in a split second shot, they dragged the entire scene out for 20+ minutes!
For 20 minutes of the opening of the movie we’re watching a CGI de-aged Harrison drive cars, navigate trains and even fight and whilst they’ve done an amazing job to make it look real it only works for a split second.
Dragging it out for 20 minutes just makes it feel like you’re watching a video game and already the film is becoming a bit of a laughing stock before we even see the future Harrison and the film truly begins.

There’s a distinct lack of energy throughout the entire feature but IMAX saves the day as the action sequences as big and grandiose as they are look phenomenal on the big screen. That IMAX audio amplifies every bullet and action shot and if this was on any other screen I may (just may) have walked out if it wasn’t for nostalgia of the franchise gluing me to my seat.
I was literally sitting down and staying down because it was Indiana Jones on the big screen and that’s why people will see this movie, the box office will be fruitful but it’ll be driven by nostalgia and not for the fact that it’s a good movie as sadly, it’s not.
The scope of the audio and technical achievement is on display and is more appreciated in IMAX format and for that and that alone I’d recommend you see films like this on the big screen. Indiana Jones, Mission Impossible, James Bond and Avatar to name a few are films that absolutely MUST be seen in IMAX and no other way even comes close to the big screen blockbuster experience that IMAX delivers.
Taking out the rather embarrassing 20 minute CGI intro (whoever thought that was a good idea) I’ll always enjoy the location hopping and sense of adventure that Indiana Jones always brings to the table but at times Indiana Jones goes from an adventure movie to a sci-fi film and I didn’t like it.
CGI indy looks great… when staying still
Harrison’s character is faced with the fact that people are looking forwards (the moon landing being a key feature of the intro) rather than looking back and appreciating history but it seems the filmmakers are also doing the same.
The story is looking forward to exploring areas that are absolutely nothing to do with what the character is all about, exploring history whilst avoiding bad guys. This feature is adamant on making us think we’re exploring history but throwing us into the future of the space time continuum like an Indiana Jones multiverse spinoff is already penned and pitched to a studio. It’s a joke.
Mads puts in quite a good performance as the bad guy but he never feels threatening, for a nazi not only does he have manners but he never gets his hands dirty and at times, and this feels weird to even say, I almost feel sorry for him. I’m not sure if that’s because of how badly Phoebe’s character is written that I want her to lose THAT badly or the fact that he’s just trying to get stuff done the right way.

By the third act the film veers into the ridiculous and even Harrison himself looked as though he didn’t want to be there. It’s not a film for the fans, it doesn’t add much to fan service other than wink and nods to previous films and characters gone by, it just drives off a cliff into a world of absurdity and that’s saying quite a lot after seeing Crystal Skull.
Whoever signed off on the script has some big questions to answer. Did they even read it? Were they just relying on the Indiana Jones name to sell tickets? Whilst it’ll work what has been served up to fans is nothing short of poor. Replacing a good old fashioned adventure movie with this CG over digitised introduction that sets the poor tone of not only this movie but many CGI shitshows we’ve had to endure over the last few years.
Sadly, for this one the IMAX tech was better than the film. It’s safe to say this last adventure will not be remembered, quite a sad way to go out. Pass me that dial of destiny, I’ve got 2 hours and 22 minutes of my life to get back.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny IMAX review by Sean Evans

Our Rating

Summary
They say cinema is dying and we were sat in a cinema that is currently in administration and it’s hard to disagree. But it certainly doesn’t help when filmmakers are getting lazier and lazier when telling stories and for a franchise as established and as loved as this you’d expect the people behind the camera to have as much love for the franchise as the fans.