Indiana Jones was a big part of my childhood. But not as a film, but as an adventure game! In 256 colors you followed a Dr. Jones in parts 3&4, who hunts down ancient artifacts and travels to exotic locations, always surrounded by beautiful, smart women and, unlike his pursuers, uses his head rather than the Colt. I would still like to fly to the Azores today just because of the panorama in INDIANA JONES AND THE FATE OF ATLANTIS. I only saw the feature films a few years later and was amazed at how breathless, funny and well-directed these homages to old adventure films and novels from the 1930s are.
INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY is now officially the final installment in the series, Harrison Ford is 80 and still incredibly sprightly. While his peers in THE IRISHMAN have slouched, he still has an upright posture, better than some twenty-somethings. As a result, the digital rejuvenation in some flashbacks looks better than I've ever seen before, head fits body here and you can stage a wonderful prologue on a train that looks like a lost fragment from old cinema times.
The film cannot be faulted for failing to show where the hefty budget went: locations in England, Sicily and Scotland, parades, car chases, diving trips and even time travel are all sumptuous to behold and a visual feast surpassing anything seen before Indiana Jones got to see.
Everything is staged with so much joy and humor that it is difficult to evade what is happening. Although Mangold is directing and not Spielberg, everything seems as if the film sat in a drawer for 30 years and was made in the late 80s. Here you want to remain massively faithful to the old films and recreate exactly the emotions in the audience that they had when watching the old films, also evoked by old characters. We recently had something similar with the third season of STAR TREK: PICARD, which was a worldwide phenomenon because not only the reunion with the heroes of our childhood, but also with a popular spaceship triggered unprecedented tears of joy through perfectly timed fan service.
Contrary to what I feared, INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY is not resolved with a good-evil duel in a musty tomb, but very consistently and opulently. I don't want to give too much away, but it reminded me of a feeling I had when, as a dinosaur fanatic, I finally got to see dinosaurs in JURASSIC PARK when I was 13!
As if that weren't enough, an essential part of the experience is one of John Williams' most beautiful scores to have been written in a long time. His HELENA'S THEME should be played in every concert in the future.
The film knows how to get all the emotions I had about myself 30 years ago: like an old Wurlitzer jukebox that has been lovingly restored and is playing records and bubbling for the first time. Despite some lengths, James Mangold probably only managed to complete the film series worthy of the current retro wave, which Spielberg didn't manage to do at the time. I am enormously grateful to him for that.
INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY is now officially the final installment in the series, Harrison Ford is 80 and still incredibly sprightly. While his peers in THE IRISHMAN have slouched, he still has an upright posture, better than some twenty-somethings. As a result, the digital rejuvenation in some flashbacks looks better than I've ever seen before, head fits body here and you can stage a wonderful prologue on a train that looks like a lost fragment from old cinema times.
The film cannot be faulted for failing to show where the hefty budget went: locations in England, Sicily and Scotland, parades, car chases, diving trips and even time travel are all sumptuous to behold and a visual feast surpassing anything seen before Indiana Jones got to see.
Everything is staged with so much joy and humor that it is difficult to evade what is happening. Although Mangold is directing and not Spielberg, everything seems as if the film sat in a drawer for 30 years and was made in the late 80s. Here you want to remain massively faithful to the old films and recreate exactly the emotions in the audience that they had when watching the old films, also evoked by old characters. We recently had something similar with the third season of STAR TREK: PICARD, which was a worldwide phenomenon because not only the reunion with the heroes of our childhood, but also with a popular spaceship triggered unprecedented tears of joy through perfectly timed fan service.
Contrary to what I feared, INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY is not resolved with a good-evil duel in a musty tomb, but very consistently and opulently. I don't want to give too much away, but it reminded me of a feeling I had when, as a dinosaur fanatic, I finally got to see dinosaurs in JURASSIC PARK when I was 13!
As if that weren't enough, an essential part of the experience is one of John Williams' most beautiful scores to have been written in a long time. His HELENA'S THEME should be played in every concert in the future.
The film knows how to get all the emotions I had about myself 30 years ago: like an old Wurlitzer jukebox that has been lovingly restored and is playing records and bubbling for the first time. Despite some lengths, James Mangold probably only managed to complete the film series worthy of the current retro wave, which Spielberg didn't manage to do at the time. I am enormously grateful to him for that.
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