Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

I got around to watching Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (being one of the remaining few who watch things on DVDs). Pretty good. After all, I watched two and a half hours straight through. I often have problems with watching things these days of some extended length.  

I thought the last film was okay (nice to see Marion again) but the enemy was somewhat lame, his son was a bit annoying, and he seemed a bit old for some of the action. 

How about something set around a decade later? The film starts at the end of WWII (old favorite: Nazis!) with some movie magic to make Harrison Ford look younger. I saw some thought that looked phony. It looked fine to me. I'm unsure how much it added to the plot but it had potential for something as a technique. The extended action scene was okay enough.

Back in the present. Old man Indy, including yelling at the neighbors for playing music too loud. Scene of him in the classroom. His young goddaughter (less annoying than the actor who played his son, who died in Vietnam) has a new adventure for him. It involves a time-traveling dial. BOGG!!!!! (There is a kid too.) And, yes, we have Nazis. Go with the favorites. 

The period is largely flagged early on by some old favorites being old (Old Indy generally is believable here; in a few cases it took some suspension of belief), the moon landing, and so forth, and a shifty agent being a black woman with an Afro. OTOH, much of the film easily could have taken place earlier. 

I think the first and third films were the best. The second had the usual problems with sequels. The fourth was okay but this was a better "old favorite" sort of sequel that did its job. It was not a GREAT film. 

The special effects and action scenes overall were pretty good though could be better. The evil guy had it a bit too easy to just basically follow the good guys. The travel back in time was handled overall okay though the ancient times scene was not too impressive. 

And, how exactly was the crashed plane dealt with? Well, let's not worry about that, or how Indy (with an untreated serious bullet wound for hours) got back to Manhattan (did the other plane have a map on board to get the coordinates?).  I know. We shouldn't think too hard about such things. 

The film was enjoyable overall. I don't remember where I saw the first film (seems like I saw it in the movies). There is a throwback to that film at this film's conclusion. I saw the second in the movies. Indiana and company are old friends. This is a good conclusion to their story.