Is the final Indiana Jones adventure destined for fortune and glory? After screening at the Cannes Film Festival in May, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny held its U.S. premiere on Wednesday night in Hollywood — and the first reactions from press in attendance are rolling out online like a booby-trapped boulder. With attendees taking to social media to share their thoughts about the fifth and final Indiana Jones movie, is it a fitting ride into the sunset for Harrison Ford's archaeologist adventurer? Or another Kingdom of the Crystal Skull? Reactions seem to be all over the place.
It's "underwhelming," writes Forbes' Simon Thompson. "It lacks the magic, energy and excitement of previous entries, especially the first three films, and largely feels somewhat pedestrian. It's a journey rather than an adventure and the third act reveal is sadly a dud." Den of Geek's Don Kaye calls Dial of Destiny "a crashing bore," with a "dull, nonsensical story, brutal pacing and zero interesting characters."
There's "a little drag," writes IGN's Kim Horcher, " but the fun of adventure is totally there." In another counterpoint, Nerdist's Lee Travis offers that the fifth Indiana Jones movie is "a solid entry" in the long-running franchise and "very much enjoyed," even if overlong.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, from Oscar-nominated Logan and Ford v Ferrari filmmaker James Mangold, is described by Disney's Lucasfilm as "a big, globe-trotting, rip-roaring cinematic adventure" that sees the soon-to-retire Indy on a race against time to retrieve the Antikythera — a dial that could "change the course of history." The logline: "Finding himself in a new era, approaching retirement, Indy wrestles with fitting into a world that seems to have outgrown him. But as the tentacles of an all-too-familiar evil return in the form of an old rival, Indy must don his hat and pick up his whip once more to make sure an ancient and powerful artifact doesn't fall into the wrong hands."
Starring alongside Ford are Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Solo: A Star Wars Story), Antonio Banderas (Uncharted), John Rhys-Davies (Raiders of the Lost Ark), Shaunette Renee Wilson (Black Panther), Thomas Kretschmann (Das Boot), Toby Jones (Captain America: The First Avenger), and Mads Mikkelsen (Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore).
Franchise stewards George Lucas and Steven Spielberg serve as executive producers on the new movie from producers Kathleen Kennedy (Star Wars: The Mandalorian), Frank Marshall (Jurassic World: Dominion), and Simon Emanuel (The Batman). John Williams, who scored every Indy movie since Raiders in 1981, returned to compose the score.
"Which kind of Indiana Jones are we going to come upon? My hope — because the tone of Indiana Jones movies in the past is so wild and zig-zaggy and almost changing and shifting even with the same film — is [that] it was to give the audience that roller coaster ride," Mangold told ComicBook. "For instance, the first almost 25 minutes of [Dial of Destiny] is in the 1940s and our best effort to make a new old Indiana Jones movie and give you a blast of what it is you probably miss about those pictures. And then to drop off a cliff and land in the late '60s and find Indy in his seventies in a different situation."
Discover Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny in theaters June 30th, and see reactions below: