With THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU in theaters, scratching that pulpy Lucasfilm adventure itch, I have been thinking a lot about INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY as it approaches its third anniversary.
People were way too harsh on this movie.
I understand why audiences may have been hesitant. Set leaks involving Roman soldiers made people nervous about the time-travel element, while the usual culture-war crowd spent months insisting Helena was going to replace Indy by the end of the movie.
That obviously did not happen.
What we actually got was one final adventure with a man who spent his entire life trying to understand history, only to reach the end and realize he no longer understood where he fit into it.
That is what made the movie work for me.
Indy does not know he is going on a time-travel adventure at the beginning. He is just an old man who has lost too much, feels left behind by the modern world, and gets pulled into another hunt for an artifact.
Then, at the end, he finally gets the one thing he has chased his entire life: the chance to actually live inside history.
And he wants to stay there.
I also love how much it feels like a spiritual companion to TEMPLE OF DOOM. It is strange, pulpy, darker than people expected, and far more emotional than it was given credit for.
By the time Marion walks back into that apartment at the end, I was tearing up like crazy.
Was it the financial hit Disney wanted? No.
But as a final Indiana Jones adventure, I think *Dial of Destiny* is quite wonderful.
I really wish more people had given it a fair chance.
A new ‘ADVENTURES OF TINTIN’ movie is officially happening.
Peter Jackson is currently writing the script with plans to direct the film himself.
(Source: @Variety)