Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (June 30th, 2023)

[Indiana Fett]

I'm seeing this on Sunday, first time NOT seeing it opening day... but at least I'll still wade through it on the big screen

Me too Wor-Gar, see you here Monday to discuss!

 

[Rogerbee]

Just back from seeing it,

On the whole, it was good. There were a lot of things that felt a bit contrived and there were throwaway nods to previous movies that didn't need to be there. It was better than KOTCS but you can't top the first 3.

 

[jye4ever]

“Sharp shooter with his gun and his whip he don’t need those ******* glasses!”

 

[Khev]

My son wasn't having any of my criticisms on the way home.

When I started in on some of my issues with the prologue he interrupted with "--but at least it finally looked like he was in the middle of an actual war instead of the Nazis just having two fighter planes and a blimp." Damn, lol.

It was actually him that mentioned Matrix 4 when I said that I thought the movie was not needed, not a classic, but fun to watch regardless and that it wrapped up the whole series with nice warm fuzzies. But Indy really is like the Matrix movies now with only the first being basically perfect and all the others to be varying quality.

Now that I think of it the prologue was basically this movie's version of the "Burly Brawl." A fun sequence where the main character is a distractingly obvious cartoon. But nobody really rips on the Burly Brawl anymore so hopefully the DOD prologue plays better on a smaller screen at home.

All in all I would go:

1. Raiders (duh)
2. TOD (awesome pulpy fun where Indy is an absolute badass and some truly no holds barred sequences)
3. DOD (not great but honestly nothing that bad aside from a number of the visuals, likable good and bad guys with some really imaginative twists and a nice ending)
4. TLC (awesome tank chase and cool finale but SO much cringe and silliness for the first 60% or so of the film, Connery is of course awesome)
5. KOTCS (honestly I'm looking forward to watching this again since I haven't bothered in at least 10 years. I hope it plays better knowing that it doesn't close the series)

 

[jye4ever]

Now that I sobered up i’ll be catching this tonight.

Reading Khev’s and Buff’s reviews has me super pumped now!

 

[Khev]

Now that I sobered up i’ll be catching this tonight.

Reading Khev’s and Buff’s reviews has me super pumped now!

Deckard is done, Han is done, I truly hope that you're able to savor and enjoy Indy's swan song!

 

[The Buffinator]

Deckard is done, Han is done, I truly hope that you're able to savor and enjoy Indy's swan song!

Now we just need an 85 year old Ford reprising his Jack Ryan to put a bow on things.

 

[Khev]

Now we just need an 85 year old Ford reprising his Jack Ryan to put a bow on things.

Mosquito Coast 2!

 

[jye4ever]

 

[Indiana Fett]

I'm doomed Sunday.

I’ll be joining you in the Temple of Doomed Sunday Wor-Gar. Back here to celebrate/commiserate Monday.

 

[Khev]

One somewhat minor thing that was a surprise and a real treat to see was the Paramount logo at the beginning. I definitely wasn't expecting that. I also liked them listing George Lucas and Steven Spielberg as Executive Producers at the end, before even KK's name appeared if I remember correctly.

 

[Wor-Gar]

All in all I would go:

1. Raiders (duh)
2. TOD (awesome pulpy fun where Indy is an absolute badass and some truly no holds barred sequences)
3. DOD (not great but honestly nothing that bad aside from a number of the visuals, likable good and bad guys with some really imaginative twists and a nice ending)
4. TLC (awesome tank chase and cool finale but SO much cringe and silliness for the first 60% or so of the film, Connery is of course awesome)
5. KOTCS (honestly I'm looking forward to watching this again since I haven't bothered in at least 10 years. I hope it plays better knowing that it doesn't close the series)

Wow -- this truly shocks me. 3rd BEST Indy? And over what many consider the 2nd Best Jones adventure.

Well this truly gives me hope. I know Khev gets very excited after first viewings and it takes a bit to cool the jets, but perhaps this is justified. Perhaps DoD is better than LC.

You know my spectrum from these movies: Raiders is always so far out ahead of any sequel its almost as if its its own movie. And it is.

So since I always felt DoD would be #4 on the list, as many have confirmed, it is not inconceivable that, for me, DoD lands close on the spectrum to LC... now I have a glimmer of hope that it may -- may -- surpass LC. But if it did, I'm sure its not by much. If DoD shakes the "silliness" out of the movie, I might be able to accept old man Indy a lot better.

On Last Crusade: personally, as much as I love Connery, I always found it a silly action movie to have the hero drag his "Dad" around on an adventure. A concept created and massaged by someone who clearly had Dad issues. To me, that's an agenda. Imagine if Bond found his Dad and dragged him into Spectre HQ to help stop the villains. Sounds ridiculous, right? So too did the premise of LC sound to me back in the day. A lot of you grew up with this movie before you had cohesive thoughts about what make s a good action/adventure movie so now you just accept this as is. They could not have cast it better, but the movie is still much sillier than ToD (and ToD is pretty silly on its own).

 

[Khev]

Wow -- this truly shocks me. 3rd BEST Indy? And over what many consider the 2nd Best Jones adventure.

Something to keep in mind is that along with 1989's Batman TLC just doesn't rank that high for me so I'm always a bit surprised to see it so often listed as the 2nd best Indy flick over TOD. So me saying DOD is 3rd probably isn't as high a praise as if most other people ranked it 3rd.

Well this truly gives me hope. I know Khev gets very excited after first viewings and it takes a bit to cool the jets, but perhaps this is justified. Perhaps DoD is better than LC.

Yes as always take my review with a grain of salt though as I've said a number of times DOD definitely isn't "great" or a classic or anything. There's just nothing particularly bad about it (save for the darn CGI/compositing from time to time) and it's fun throughout and ends in satisfying fashion. A worthy yarn with a beloved character, nothing more, nothing less.

You know my spectrum from these movies: Raiders is always so far out ahead of any sequel its almost as if its its own movie. And it is.

So since I always felt DoD would be #4 on the list, as many have confirmed, it is not inconceivable that, for me, DoD lands close on the spectrum to LC... now I have a glimmer of hope that it may -- may -- surpass LC. But if it did, I'm sure its not by much. If DoD shakes the "silliness" out of the movie, I might be able to accept old man Indy a lot better.

On Last Crusade: personally, as much as I love Connery, I always found it a silly action movie to have the hero drag his "Dad" around on an adventure. A concept created and massaged by someone who clearly had Dad issues. To me, that's an agenda. Imagine if Bond found his Dad and dragged him into Spectre HQ to help stop the villains. Sounds ridiculous, right? So too did the premise of LC sound to me back in the day. A lot of you grew up with this movie before you had cohesive thoughts about what make s a good action/adventure movie so now you just accept this as is. They could not have cast it better, but the movie is still much sillier than ToD (and ToD is pretty silly on its own).

Agreed. And if those ***** YouTubers saw TLC today they wouldn't consider it the perfect finale for the "trilogy," no they'd be wining that Indy was a simp for Elsa (which he was) and that he got "cucked" by his dad (which he did.) Fools who can't recognize that not every negative thing in film began with Ghostbusters 2016.

 

[Khev]

I really could have done without seeing a shirtless 80 year old Harrison Ford.

Going back to this for a second I agree but at least Ford is surprisingly ripped for an 80 year old man and after being so jaded by watching Boba Fett "sliding around on the floor in a diaper like a slimy newborn" (lol Wor-Gar ) Indy's super brief scene of him standing up and quickly throwing a shirt on didn't bother me at all, lol.

 

[jye4ever]

6:15 NY time today super excited i’m going in spoiler free.

 

[The Buffinator]

Going back to this for a second I agree but at least Ford is surprisingly ripped for an 80 year old man and after being so jaded by watching Boba Fett "sliding around on the floor in a diaper like a slimy newborn" (lol Wor-Gar ) Indy's super brief scene of him standing up and quickly throwing a shirt on didn't bother me at all, lol.

If that's what ripped looks like at 80 just kill me now.

 

[Khev]

If that's what ripped looks like at 80 just kill me now.

Well relatively speaking, at least for his arms I thought. I even think it was a good move to show how in shape he was (again relatively speaking) in order to better allow the audience to suspend disbelief when watching him running and punching everyone later in the movie.

 

[The Buffinator]

6:15 NY time today super excited i’m going in spoiler free.

Bruce Wayne is Batman.

 

[Khev]

Bruce Wayne is Batman.

And I was totally blown away when Multiverse Chris Pratt Indy and Tom Selleck Indy appeared for that big team up at the end. Oh shoot, sorry jye, lol.

 

[The Buffinator]

And I was totally blown away when Multiverse Chris Pratt Indy and Tom Selleck Indy appeared for that big team up at the end. Oh shoot, sorry jye, lol.

And they reenacted the whole Spider-Man pointing thing lol. But what really threw me was Ford was sporting a mustache and Selleck wasn't. WTH???