It is time for Harrison Ford - and perhaps even Indiana Jones (in this iteration at least) - to finally hang up his whip and fedora. There was some nostalgic excitement as we watched Ford re-inhabit the role and Phoebe Waller-Bridge was a fun, dynamic addition (as compared to Shia LaBeouf’s character not the actor). However, James Mangold’s direction, though thrilling for the action sequences, lacked the flare, ingenuity and natural excitement of original director Steven Spielberg - yes, even with the previous Crystal Skull.
One major issue laid in Ford’s age, because even as he continued to dish out quips - most do land, as did his banter with Waller-Bridge - his aging body just did not translate into adequate and/or believable action sequences. This was even despite all the de-aging technology, plot contrivances to put Indy in vehicular chases (or on horseback in one case) or simply conveniently explained away with a line or two of (eye-rolling) dialogue.
And yes, the screenplay by all four (4!) screenwriters was mostly unimaginative and clunky. They seemed to be trying so hard to recapture the magic of the original that they forgot about character development and nuances. Indiana Jones was never just about the adventure, but also Indy’s relationship with Marion and his father, and a little to Willie and Short Round. And in this film, Indy’s relationship with his god-daughter just seemed superficial and in service of moving the narrative rather than deepening it.
At least we still had John Williams scoring the adventure and the opening notes of Indy’s theme (and Marion’s too) never failed to just speed up the heart rate just that little bit more.
The cinematography by Phedon Papamichael had some good moments, in particular in the third act where the nostalgic Indy adventure really kicked into gear.
Waller-Bridge may be a good choice to continue the franchise, if they really wanted to, but we do have “Tomb Raider”, so maybe just, really, goodbye and good night to Indiana Jones.
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