Fifteen years after the poorly received Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the intrepid archaeologist is back. Harrison Ford returns as the hero in this tale set in 1969. Indy sets out to track down a mysterious dial known as the Antikythera before ex-Nazi’s, now working for the US in their space programme, obtain it.
I am not the biggest Indiana Jones fan. Raiders of the Lost Ark was enjoyable and The Last Crusade excellent, but the other two entries were lacklustre. Fortunately, much of this fifth film in the franchise can be described as old fashioned fun mostly in the style of the best entries in the series. Ford rolls back the years, partly thanks to de-aging CGI in the lengthy pre-credits sequence set in 1944, and Phoebe Waller Bridge is a welcome addition as his conniving god daughter, Helena. Toby Jones also adds a touch of class as Helena’s father.
The main problem is the excessive 154 minute running time. After the decent set-up and then terrific set pieces in New York and Tangiers, nothing that follows can live up to those. The denouement in Ancient Greece does not really work in dramatic terms and makes little logical sense.
Better than feared after such a long break and with James Mangold replacing Steven Spielberg in the director’s chair, but not destined to be a classic.
Rating: 6.5 out of 10