I don’t have much of an issue with what Spielberg and Lucas did with the story here. If you understand the source material these movies always pulled from, this is the natural evolution of the Indiana Jones story. The movie comes from a time where Spielberg was experimenting with the look of his films, and while this film doesn’t look anywhere near as good as the original trilogy, the results aren’t half bad. There’s still plenty of ambition in the framing, blocking and stuntwork, which you can’t say about Dial of Destiny. Sure, the set pieces are a few notches below the franchise’s best, but there are still a couple of memorable moments here. Some of those moments are infamous for all the wrong reasons (nuke the fridge; Shia LaBoeuf being Tarzan), and it’s hard to argue against this one generally having the dumbest script of the franchise, but the motorcycle chase is still a lot of fun to watch. Technically, Spielberg makes more than a few bad calls here. A lot of the CGI looks unpolished (those prairie dogs, why?), there’s some very noticeable ADR and some of the creature design isn’t great. A good argument could be made that his heart wasn’t fully in this one. You can’t say that about Harrison Ford though, he’s still fantastic in the role and I like that the movie isn’t afraid to call out his age. Unfortunately he’s paired up here with an annoying sidekick played by Shia LaBoeuf and an underwritten (though cool looking) villain played by Cate Blanchett. All in all, I appreciate Spielberg’s risk taking with this one, but the silliness should’ve been reigned in, and some of the ideas needed more refinement in order to keep this engaging all the way through.
Review by JordyVIP 8BlockedParent2023-07-01T21:56:11Z
I don’t have much of an issue with what Spielberg and Lucas did with the story here. If you understand the source material these movies always pulled from, this is the natural evolution of the Indiana Jones story. The movie comes from a time where Spielberg was experimenting with the look of his films, and while this film doesn’t look anywhere near as good as the original trilogy, the results aren’t half bad. There’s still plenty of ambition in the framing, blocking and stuntwork, which you can’t say about Dial of Destiny. Sure, the set pieces are a few notches below the franchise’s best, but there are still a couple of memorable moments here. Some of those moments are infamous for all the wrong reasons (nuke the fridge; Shia LaBoeuf being Tarzan), and it’s hard to argue against this one generally having the dumbest script of the franchise, but the motorcycle chase is still a lot of fun to watch. Technically, Spielberg makes more than a few bad calls here. A lot of the CGI looks unpolished (those prairie dogs, why?), there’s some very noticeable ADR and some of the creature design isn’t great. A good argument could be made that his heart wasn’t fully in this one. You can’t say that about Harrison Ford though, he’s still fantastic in the role and I like that the movie isn’t afraid to call out his age. Unfortunately he’s paired up here with an annoying sidekick played by Shia LaBoeuf and an underwritten (though cool looking) villain played by Cate Blanchett. All in all, I appreciate Spielberg’s risk taking with this one, but the silliness should’ve been reigned in, and some of the ideas needed more refinement in order to keep this engaging all the way through.
4.5/10