[DISCUSSION] Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Spoilers)

Well I just got back from a showing. I enjoyed it. It's not great but I wouldn't call it bad by any means. I think fans that grew up watching Indy will enjoy it a lot more. I was more of a fan of the Indy trilogy as a kid than I was of Star Wars, or anything else really, besides maybe Back to the Future. I couldn't tell you how many times I've seen the original trilogy. And it was just nice to see Indy on the big screen again. He definitely shows his age in that he doesn't really do that much in the way of action and there are tons of cuts switching from close up to wide to hide that fact. The opening scene with de-aged Indy was pretty fun. I thought the CGI was pretty good. There's definitely moments where it's extremely obvious but at this point I can tune that out for the most part. The big giveaway was his voice for me. He just sounds way older than he looked. They should have done some processing on his voice to make it sound younger. But overall, I think Ford did a great job.

The supporting cast I found fairly meh TBH. PWB was good, but her character was just very unlikable which I guess is the point to give her the redemption arc, but she was just a bit too much of an asshole for me at first. The kid was fine, he didn't annoy me nor did he stand out to me in any meaningful way. Antonio Banderas was criminally underused, but I did enjoy the little bit he was there. It was super nice to see Sallah again. I thought the ending with Karen Allen was really sweet honestly. And I do like the story beats on what happened between her and Indy. Also super hilarious that they killed off Shia LeBeouf off screen.

The story I found to be alright. It was miles better than Crystal Skull, but it just didn't have any super memorable set pieces aside from the insane last act in Ancient Rome. I can't believe they actually went there. And I really enjoyed how Indy was just enthralled with it all. Examining the spearhead when it hit the plane just felt right. I really enjoyed the nods to temple of doom. "You've never been forced to drink the blood of Kali" made me grin. I understand why people don't like it, but I've always loved it. It was my favorite one when I was a kid until I grew up and learned more about filmmaking and story. I also found it hilarious that the villain's plan was literally go back in time and kill Hitler. It's a bit overlong, but overall I enjoyed it, but I'm a huge Indy fan and can see why some wouldn't. It's definitely flawed and honestly, a bit boring if I'm honest, but it mostly worked for me.

Saw it last night and not sure how I feel. There's great stuff in here, some good stuff and some mediocre stuff. Overall I think I enjoyed it, but I think my criticisms can be summed up by:

• When de-aging actors, more care should be put into matching their voice to their age. The de-aged Indy sounded ancient!

• Chase sequences were far too long. I know that's a weird complain in an Indiana Jones film, but the reason for that is...

• Overreliance on CGI. There's a chase sequence with some tuk-tuks in Tangier which drags on for quite a while. Despite spectacular things happening, the clear CGI renders them mundane and makes the chase feel fake. They could've cut down the length and scale of the chase, filmed it practically with stunt doubles and sets and it would've been brilliant.

• Never ever, under any circumstances, should you underuse Antonio Banderas.

I haven't rewatched Crystal Skull in about a decade, so I don't know where I rank it overall, but it's not as good as Raiders, Temple or Crusade.

For me, better than Temple of Doom, so right in the middle of the pack. Which is about the best I'd hoped for.

Great first 20m, except the face swap. Really great ending. Good chase scenes. Good supporting cast.

Could have been 20 minutes tighter. A few bits here and there I would tweak. Overall, much better send off than crystal skull.

I really liked the finale setting but the rest was pretty forgettable to me. Not awful but not amazing.

Tough beat for the opening set piece to come right after a featurette about Dead Reckoning's train sequence.

None of Phoebe Waller-Bridge's quips landed for me so once that toned down I liked the character and the movie much more.