Cert - 12, Run-time - 2 hour 34 minutes,

Director - James Mangold

Retiring Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is dragged by his goddaughter (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) into a race against time to stop Nazis from changing history.

When Steven Spielberg took on 1981’s Raiders Of The Lost Ark he was looking for something with a more limited budget - after a string of increasing studio price tags, especially the out-of-control 1941. With Raiders he made his ode to the B-movie. An adventure flick where action was sprung from the locations, further expanding them and adding to the overall detail of the moment; exploring the scene. It’s something which Spielberg has brought to each of the subsequent Indiana Jones features - even Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, which I’m a defend of - with his own signature style.

Having stepped down from directing duties for the final adventure for Harrison Ford’s titular figure, with James Mangold now sitting in the chair, Dial Of Destiny is more of a big action blockbuster. With a nearly $300 million budget set-pieces are largely made up of extended action sequences going from one moment to another via a chase or two. The whole film is a race as Jones and goddaughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) are in a race to find the two halves of the dial of destiny before Dr Jurgen Voller (Mads Mikkelson) is able to use it to reverse time so the Nazis win the war.

The archaeology and history chat conflicts with the action sequences. While also feeling drawn out at times the almost rambling nature never quite grabs your attention, the tone becomes somewhat bland before the next chase or fight sequence. As a whole you sit watching something which is perfectly fine but you wish had more of a sense of adventure.

As the race for the dial continues there are plenty of backdrops and meeting points for the various characters, some slightly more repetitive than others. But, for the protagonists it’s the love of the character for Ford and the energy of Waller-Bridge - who manages to make her character her own, overcoming an initial feeling that the dialogue is written for someone in their mid-20s - help to engage, and even bring a couple of chuckles along the way.

On the other hand, Mikkelson may put in a good performance, as expected, but the threat never quite comes through from him as he relies on his two henchmen (Boyd Holbrook, Olivier Richters) to do all the punching and shooting. Due to the big-scale blockbuster nature of the film the potential traditional angle that may be attempted to capture doesn’t quite come through, especially with how much the film brings into play over the course of the 2-and-a-half-hour-plus run-time. 

The final shot may be a fitting close for Harrison Ford’s iconic character, but you do find yourself wishing the film did more with what it had instead of frequently trying to add. It needs a bigger sense of adventure.                

Jamie Skinner, Three stars ****