Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Poor Temple of Doom I love that movie.

I really liked the opening sequence in the cabaret, up to the escape by plane. After that it got a bit out of control. It's a clear #4 for me.

 

[Weird Dave]

I caught Dial of Destiny a few days ago, and it was ... fine. It was a fine movie. Nothing great, but yeah about as good as Temple of Doom (and still more cohesive than Crystal Skull). My biggest complaint is actually the missed opportunities to get down and dirty with the idea of grief, especially with such an aged character.

More thoughts after the spoiler tag ...

Spoiler

Indiana Jones is a character in the movies mostly chasing after someone else's obsessions - Abner Ravenwood in Raiders, Henry Jones Sr. in Last Crusade, and Harold Oxley in Crystal Skull (Temple of Doom being the odd outlier). That line of logic continues with Dial of Destiny as the Antikytherea was the obsession of Basil Shaw. But why? An object that can detect "time fissures" - it would have been cliche, yes, but whey else would a good character seek such an item if it wasn't to recover a lost love? But the movie never touches upon it, even though it goes to show Basil's obsession over the item.

Similarly, Indy's grief over the loss of his son which caused the fissure in his marriage. It seems like Indiana Jones never dealt with the grief, and I think there were opportunities in the movie for that to come out - the death of Antonio Banderas in his brief cameo, for example.

There was also an opportunity to better connect Indy's interest in Archimedes to the final scene in Sicily. How obsessed was Indy regarding the inventor? He was teaching a class at the beginning of the movie about it but it had all the same passion as his teaching in the previous movies, more like something he was just going through the motions with.

So, overall, it was a fine movie. It had some thrills, maybe an over reliance on car chases, and some fun moments. For me, for an Indiana Jones movie, it didn't strain credulity like Crystal Skull did, and it felt like the stakes were clear enough to keep the momentum going.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I have some real questions how different the script they showed Antonio Banderas was, because I have a hard time picturing him signing on for five or six lines. Surely he can afford his own boat to hang out on.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

The biggest issue with the movie, for me, was the opening, which was thrilling, as it should be -- I suspect opening sequences are the most fun part of making Indiana Jones and James Bond movies -- but the de-aging CGI was only successful about half time time, flickering back and forth between "wow, that looks great" to "dear god, what am I looking at" from second to second. Weirdly, it was worst on Mads Mikkelson, rather than Harrison Ford, which was surprising to me.

I would guess that the reason de-aging Mads Mikkelson was dodgier than de-aging Harrison Ford is that they had an extensive library of vintage footage of his character they were using to paint an 80s Indy face over Mr. Ford and/or his stand-in, whereas with Mikkelson they probably just used the computer's projection of what he looked like younger (to make that sound much simpler than it no doubt was) or if they were using reference materials from when he was younger they were disperate and not of him as that character. Also they just knew he'd be under less scrutiny.

De-aged Indy only really bothered me in the shot where he first jumps onto the train, because they also didn't seem to give his hair believable movement (or at least so I thought the one time I saw it), which emphasized how fake everything was. But yes the effectiveness did vary from frame to frame rather than shot to shot. The technology is clearly there enough for the right sparing uses, but not quite up to what they tried to do with it here. At the very least they should have avoided so many close-ups so that they could spend more time on the ones they really needed.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Top Gun was the movie that, for the most part, got people back to the theaters. It's just not the same movie on a home TV.

I wouldn't say it "got people back in the theatres". People went to the theatres to see Top Gun. But it had no effect on any other movie. The pandemic (and economic hardship, at least in the UK) broke the cinema-going habit, and at this point it remains broken.

It's not that cinema prices have gone up, but things associated with trips to the cinema - parking, food, drink - have gone up enormously in the UK.

 

[Zardnaar]

I wouldn't say it "got people back in the theatres". People went to the theatres to see Top Gun. But it had no effect on any other movie. The pandemic (and economic hardship, at least in the UK) broke the cinema-going habit, and at this point it remains broken.

It's not that cinema prices have gone up, but things associated with trips to the cinema - parking, food, drink - have gone up enormously in the UK.

How much do you mind me asking?

Costs here approx in usd.

Ticket $9
Concessions $7-$12.
Parking $0
Time 5-10 minute drive
Burger and fries or kebab $12


Restaurant Dinner for two, 2 beers, dessert $48

So depending how fancy you wanted to do it.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

How much do you mind me asking?

Costs here approx in usd.

Ticket $9
Concessions $7-$12.
Parking $0
Time 5-10 minute drive
Burger and fries or kebab $12


Restaurant Dinner for two, 2 beers, dessert $48

So depending how fancy you wanted to do it.

It would have to be guestimates (I don't eat burgers!), but something like this based on my last trip, to see HAT:

Ticket £7.50
Concessions no idea
Parking £5
Time 15 minute drive
Burger and fries or kebab £12 each? We paid around £20 per head, light meal and coffee. Restaurant meal is around £40 per head.

 

[Zardnaar]

It would have to be guestimates (I don't eat burgers!), but something like this based on my last trip, to see HAT:

Ticket £7.50
Concessions no idea
Parking £5
Time 15 minute drive
Burger and fries or kebab £12 each? We paid around £20 per head, light meal and coffee. Restaurant meal is around £40 per head.

I've been watching UK food videos. I've noticed the price is roughly the same. Eg 30 pounds in UK is around $30 here.

Currency conversion though a pound is around $2. Steak meal is $32-$38 nzd.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Oh, steaks have more than doubled since the pandemic, but I haven't had one. Which suits my partner, who is vegetarian.

 

[Zardnaar]

Oh, steaks have more than doubled since the pandemic, but I haven't had one. Which suits my partner, who is vegetarian.

They jumped in price here as well. Not doubled though.

Two bits of fish and chips are around $6-7 usd. My theatre has a liquor license and fold out table so you can order say burger and fries, eat it watching a movie and wash it down with a beer. The beers about bar prices, burger and chips slightly over priced but nice enough.