海角大神

鈥淚ndiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny鈥� is the fifth and final installment of the much-loved franchise. For many, particularly of a certain age, it represents not so much a stand-alone film as a portal into the old-fashioned pleasures of moviegoing that we presumably experienced before CGI and the pandemic and everything else intervened.

It鈥檚 a serviceable thrill ride. Harrison Ford and his fedora manfully hold down the title role. But I鈥檝e never been a cult follower of this franchise. Its escapades often seemed more processed than inspired. Since much of this new movie deliberately references the earlier installments, my wonderment remains dimmed.

Still, retro-ness has its appeal, and 鈥淒ial of Destiny鈥� is nothing if not thumpingly old-school. It begins with Indy tangling with Nazis in the waning days of World War II. His escape, abetted by fellow captured archaeologist Basil Shaw (Toby Jones), involves lots of shootings and stabbings and stunt-double pyrotechnics aboard a speeding train. The centerpiece relic this go-round is an astronomical calculator invented by Archimedes that can reputedly create fissures in time. Indy doesn鈥檛 want it falling into the wrong hands 鈥� namely, chief Nazi bad guy Dr. Voller (Mads Mikkelsen). He, as we will find out, would like to rewrite history so the Nazis win the war.

This is the first film in the series not directed by Steven Spielberg or co-written by George Lucas. James Mangold, who also co-wrote, inherited the gig 鈥� but I didn鈥檛 detect much of a difference. As a piece of action filmmaking, it鈥檚 actually an improvement over the previous entry in the franchise, the laggard 2008 鈥淐rystal Skull.鈥�

Lucasfilm Ltd./AP

Boyd Holbrook plays an antagonist in 鈥淚ndiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.鈥�

The big change, of course, is Ford, who was pushing 80 when the film was shot. The WWII sequences, where Indy is still relatively spry, put Ford through the digital de-aging process that creeped so many of us out when it was used on Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in 鈥淭he Irishman.鈥澛� The results here are much improved, though Ford鈥檚 gravelly voice, which has not been altered, undercuts the effect.

Soon enough, the film flashes forward to the summer of 1969, around the time of the moon landing. Indy is separated from his wife, Marion (Karen Allen, who makes a very brief appearance). Their son, we have learned, has been killed in Vietnam. Indy鈥檚 living alone in a crummy Manhattan apartment, drinking too much, wrapping up his last boring college archaeology class, and wearily welcoming his newfound retirement.

Then he鈥檚 reluctantly roped back into the fray by his goddaughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge from 鈥淔leabag鈥�), Basil鈥檚 daughter, who needs him to help locate the dial, although her interests appear to be more mercenary than archaeological. What follows is an overlong concatenation of OK set pieces featuring oodles of predictable globe-hopping derring-do.

Perhaps older audiences, much like Ford himself, will feel the nostalgic need to de-age and revisit this bygone world. Although 鈥淒ial of Destiny鈥� is far from CGI-free, it may still resonate with moviegoers 鈥� though perhaps not with newbie viewers 鈥� who feel assaulted by the cosmic clatter of the Marvel and DC flicks. Having Nazis as the bad guys may also have its retro appeal, but with neo-Nazism on the global rise, that bit of pulp villainy sits especially uneasily on the screen these days. So, for that matter, do the Vietnam references. Fantasy films do not benefit from specifying real-world horrors.

A larger point raised by this film is, can we experience action-adventure movie heroism the way we used to? 鈥淒ial of Destiny鈥� may not be a true test case. The franchise is iconic, the film is deliberately anachronistic, and at this point it probably won鈥檛 spawn retreads. But for many people, it could summon memories of the good-time moviegoing experience as it once was, even if that memory is rose-tinted. Nostalgia isn鈥檛 about how things really were. It鈥檚 about how we wanted them to be. For these moviegoers, 鈥淒ial of Destiny鈥� will likely offer up its own fissure in time.

Peter Rainer is the Monitor鈥檚 film critic. 鈥淚ndiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny鈥� is rated PG-13 for sequences of violence and action, language, and smoking.聽