If adventure had a name it would be Indiana Jones. A hero made as a throwback to a former generation of adventuring heroes when he original stepped into the light in 1981 but now 5 movies deep and 40 years later it might be the final adventure for our favourite archaeologist.
If you aren’t familiar then really what are you doing on this site? Indiana Jones first appeared in what some may consider one of the greatest action adventure films ever made – Raiders of the Lost Ark. Written by George Lucas and staring Harrison Ford both fresh off the success of Star Wars, Raiders was directed by a little known director Steven Spielberg who went on to direct the first 4 films of the series spanning 30 years.
Following the adventures of the emanant Doctor Henry (Indiana) Walton Jones Junior or as he is known to his friends, Indy, the series featured Indy travelling the globe to retrieve lost artifacts and preserve them for museums. Much like the James Bond franchise each film while having some chronology (except for the 2nd film being set a year before the first) each film was a standalone adventure from any previous.
Armed with a Fedora, a fear of snakes and a hatred of Nazis, Indy would use his trusty bullwhip to explore ancient boobytrapped tombs in the name of archaeology. While based on the adventure films and serials from the 1930s and 1940s, Indy was without a doubt the inspiration for later adventure films like Brendan Fraser’s The Mummy or the video games of Lara Croft and Nathan Drake.
With the original film coming out in 1981 and becoming the highest grossing film for that year, the second film (Temple of Doom) was almost guaranteed in 1984 before a third and what seemed to be final film in 1989 with Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade which saw Sean Connery playing Indy’s father Henry Jones Snr. While every one of these is worth watching more than once the last crusade was thought to be the final film with Indy riding off into the sunset in the end, until a fourth film the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in 2008 being the first film not set before World War 2 and being set in the 1950s at the start of the Cold War swapping Nazis for the Ruskies. The final film also saw Indy be given a happily ever after with a son & getting married by the end.
The new Indiana Jones film hitting cinemas Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is the first film not to be directed by Stephen Spielberg and instead by Logan director James Mangold. While obviously an Indiana Jones film there are some subtle differences which make the film more of a film made as a stylised version of the original films rather than a continuation even though this is the first film to show some tie in with Indy’s life to a previous film.
The film itself jumps between during World War 2 (we aren’t sure exactly when as the traditional dates on screen are skipped for this one) and the ‘modern day’ of 1969 just after the Moon Landing. Much like the films from before we start off with some over the top action of Indiana Jones taking on the brunt of the Nazis in the act of retrieving a lost antiquity before we jump forward to an older Indy (more reflecting Harrison Ford’s current age) who is just about to retire from teaching and living a single life in New York City before his god-daughter enters the scene to push Indy for one more adventure to recover a treasure that was thought lost with those same earlier Nazis.
With the original films Indiana Jones often was subject to some over the top action sequences which were slightly detached from reality and while the special effects of the 1980s did feature a nice green screen effect, the latest film employs more modern technologies which brings us to the elephant in the tomb – Deep faking.
With Han Solo playing himself across a 30 year gap the earlier scenes use Deep Fakes (the technology that does a frame by frame replacement using younger images of the actor) to de-age our hero. While it has come a long way since Pirncess Leia in Rogue One and this is the first time we have seen his particular approach used to de-age the same actor, and it’s…. no bad. While the technology has a while to go still, and the major drawbacks of not quite capturing small wrinkles in facial expressions it does show there is a future for characters who may otherwise be lost to time. If there is any major grip it would be that while deep faking is used to de-age the face the aged voice will remind you that it is still Harrison Ford underneath.
So, should you go see it? Regardless of the technology this is probably the last time we will ever see an Indiana Jones film in the cinemas as Harrison Ford has said when he is gone Indy is gone too. While there is definitely some different beats (most notably showing possibly a bit too much of how the sausage tastes plus how it was made unlike the previous films in the final act) there is enough of the same Indiana Jones action to make this a worthy addition to the franchise lore. Regardless, this is one of the few franchises that no matter what, those original timeless films will always be waiting for you to watch them over and over again and this film will join them.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is in cinemas across Australia from today.
