- Location: Cinemark Century Point Ruston
- I suppose it's to the production's great credit that Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is not unwatchable. I will admit that this is a much better film than Temple of Doom, and let's not even mention the one with refrigerators, aliens, and Shia LaBeouf. This time around, the adventurous archeologist Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) finds himself fighting...well, it's the Nazis again. But this time around, the Nazis are searching for...well, it's a magical ancient relic again. Come to think of it, many of the enjoyable parts of this movie involve things we've seen before, including adorable returning actors John Rhys-Davies and Karen Allen.
- That said, the film does feature one particularly entertaining new addition in the form of Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), a budding archeologist whose father (Toby Jones) seemingly went mad after studying the Antikythera mechanism. Helena is delightfully clever and dishonest in a way that action heroines are rarely allowed to be, and Waller-Bridge electrifies her scenes, especially when paired with her redoubtable sidekick Teddy (Ethann Isidore). Franchise newcomers Mads Mikkelsen and Antonio Banderas are natural fits for this series while Boyd Holbrook, Shaunette Renée Wilson, and Olivier Richters do well enough as henchman.
- So what should we remember about this installment when we unearth it again sometime in the distant future? Aside from the film's strong cast, its action scenes are decent, although not nearly as memorable as anything from the first film. Hearing the voice of an 80-year-old man coming from a computer de-aged body is nearly as strange as seeing a shiny, completely operational Antikythera mechanism, but realism was never a strong suit of this series. More than anything, I will remember that Indiana Jones wanted to die in the past but was dragged back against his will. I imagine Harrison Ford felt the same way about making another Indiana Jones movie.
