What critics say The Hollywood Reporter

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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Fate premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on Thursday night. At the glitzy Palace screening, director James Mangold and stars Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Boyd Holbrook and Ethann Isidore received a five-minute standing ovation from the crowd. But it was Indy himself, Harrison Ford, who was the center of attention, with the actor visibly moved to tears by the reception.

Shortly after the premiere, the first reviews for the film, which hits theaters on June 30, arrived. Early critical reaction to the fifth film in the beloved Indiana Jones franchise on Thursday night was decidedly mixed. A common theme among early reviews is that the film is better than Indy’s last outing, the rather polarizing Indiana Jones and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull from 2008, but not much better. Many critics took issue with Ford’s digital de-aging for certain scenes and the use of CGI as a whole. But there was plenty of praise for Waller-Bridge, and of course, Ford, who still exudes charm as an adventurous archaeologist.

Below are key excerpts from some of the most important early reviews.

Hollywood Reporters critic David Rooney wrote that what the new film, scripted by Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth, David Koepp and Mangold, with the feel of something written by a committee, has is a sweet blast of sheer nostalgia in the closing scene, a welcome reappearance heralded with some visual cues early on. But that part of what dulls the fun of this final chapter is how so fake it feels.

The Guardians Peter Bradshaw was among the film’s most positive reviewers, and he described Dial of Destiny as having a bit of zip and fun and narrative ingenuity with all of its MacGuffiny silliness that [Kingdom of the Crystal Skull] truly not. The review goes on to say that the finale is wildly silly and entertaining, and that Dial of Destiny is used in a bold way that sheds light on the whole issue of defying aging and the gravitational pull of time. Indiana Jones still has a certain old-school class to it.

IndieWires David Ehrlich didn’t throw a punch in his review, writing that not only is Indiana Jones and the Dial of Fate an almost complete waste of time, it’s also a laborious reminder that certain relics are best left where and when they belong. If only previous entries in this series had taken great pains to point that out. Ehrlich took issue with many aspects of the film, but mostly that it was safe.

In contrast, Empires John Nugent was very high on Dial of Destiny, writing that the movie has all the hallmarks of the series are there as you’d hope, lovingly preserved like archaeological treasures. Nugent welcomed Mangolds in a darker direction and he concluded by writing Indys end date with fate has a crazy finale that might divide audiences, but if you join him for the ride it feels like a fitting farewell to the grave robber favorite of cinemas.

Writing in The Times of London, reviewer Kevin Maher began his review with a screech: The good news is that it’s not as poor as Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The bad news is that it’s not much better. Maher suggested that even the addition of Fleabags Waller-Bridge couldn’t save the film, but he credited Ford’s performance. Ford, despite all this, remains on charisma overload. Even when the machine around him is on autopilot, he brings his altered gravity to perhaps his most important character. Inevitably, he and Indy deserved better, Maher wrote.

Vanity Fairs Richard Lawson was another who felt let down by Dial of Destiny. The basic components are there: an object quest rooted in history, a tingle of the supernatural, easily rooted against fascist villains, Lawson writes, before adding, but something in the calculations is wrong. Lawson felt the story didn’t click and veered too much into magic, and taking the character out of the familiar. Indy just doesn’t seem fair around the movie theater, an old man who’s been dragged somewhere he doesn’t belong, Lawson writes.

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