After three years of epidemic, this summer's North American film market has finally swept away the haze and has the look that the summer file should have. Especially recently, "Mission Impossible 7", "Barbie", "Oppenheimer" and so on have launched publicity; In contrast, the release of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which is also a big IP, is somewhat silent. I don't know if it is affected by the poor reputation in the early stage, Disney sees that the production cost of $294 million is difficult to collect, and I want to save a little in publicity.
Indiana Jones 5: Wheel of Destiny poster
The "Indiana Jones" series, featuring Indiana Jones, an ancient (tomb) expert on Kao (robbery), was born in 1981; starring Harrison Ford; Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, two friends, teamed up, with the former as director and the latter as writer and producer. This series can be described as the first Hollywood treasure hunt adventure series of movies, including "National Treasure", "Tomb Raider", "Uncharted" and other latecomers have been more or less influenced by it, and even the recently released "Transformers 7" has a tribute to it.
A still from the first part of "Indiana Jones"
The first three installments of Indiana Jones were all released in the 1980s; The fourth part was released in 2008 after 19 years. And "Indiana Jones 5", which will be released simultaneously in North America, China and other places from June 30, has passed 15 years since the last one. Producer Disney claims that this part will be the finale; Harrison Ford, who played from the age of 39 to 80, also announced that he would no longer play Dr. Jones.
Perhaps because of its unique significance for the entire series, Disney nodded and agreed to send "Indiana Jones 5" to the Cannes Film Festival in May for its world premiere. The star-studded red carpet that night was also one of the best in Cannes this year, starring Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Max Mikkelsen all naturally appeared, and even Bob Egger, the number one of the Disney Group, flew over to the scene, which shows that he has considerable expectations for the prospect of this summer production.
On May 19, 2023, local time, "Indiana Jones 5" held its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, starring Harrison Ford to display the Palme d'Or Lifetime Achievement Award trophy. Visual China map
However, just as the so-called Chengye Xiao defeated Xiao He, the huge premiere achieved a publicity effect, but the rating also had to be opened. Amazingly, the score of the film review website "Rotten Tomatoes" is only 43% fresh, which is not only far from expectations, but also has the risk of being classified as a "bad film".
Fortunately, as the release date approached and the number of film reviews published in the media climbed, "Indiana Jones 5" slowly climbed above the passing line in "Rotten Tomatoes"; However, the current freshness of 66% is definitely not excellent. Personally, passers-by viewers may be more tolerant when scoring; And fans of the "Indiana Jones" series or viewers who have watched the first four films are probably destined to be disappointed.
As of press time, Indiana Jones 5 has a 66% freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
To say that the biggest difference between this fifth film and the first four is the choice of director - Spielberg handed over the baton to James Mangold. Although the popularity of the two is high and low, James Mangold is by no means a general, his "Soul Shifting Girl", "Deadly ID", "Wolverine 2", "Wolverine 3", "Decisive Battle for Yuma Town", "Speed King" and other works are all word-of-mouth masterpieces, it can be said that there are few times when the directorial career has missed. However, Mangold, who has worked in many genres such as science fiction, romance, song and dance, superhero films, biopics, westerns, etc., has never been involved in the theme of treasure hunting adventures before, and this may be an area he is not good at. As for the two respected old-timers, Spielberg hung up the title of producer; Lucas, who sold the company to Disney and enjoyed his old age, was one of the screenwriters. How much of a role they played in Indiana Jones 5 is a big question mark.
Spielberg and Lucas behind the scenes can be absent, and Harrison Ford in front of the curtain is of course irreplaceable, so the elderly Ford can only pick up his whip again. However, to the surprise of fans, the film opens with middle-aged Jones vs the Nazis, snatching the mysterious instrument Destiny Wheel invented by Archimedes. Although his movements seem to be a little slower than in the past, relying on 3G technology, his face is still the same as in the first three parts. However, soon the timeline came to 1969, and after surprise, there was shock.
The film tells the story of Dr. Jones, who retired from university teaching, became a loner, his son (played by Shia LaBeouf in the previous film) died in the Vietnam battlefield, and his wife Marianne was unable to get out of the pain of losing her son and was ready to divorce him. At this time, Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), the daughter of a former old friend, comes to him and coaxes him to take away the wheel of fate that can travel through time and space. In order to prevent Helena from selling the roulette wheel into trouble, Jones chased him to Morocco and met Waller (Max Mikkelsen), who wanted to snatch the wheel. It turns out that Waller is a Nazi scientist who fought Jones in the past, and he is bent on returning to the "World War II" period to kill Hitler to prevent the rout of the Nazis. Jones cracked the other half of the roulette wheel and hid it in the grave of Archimedes in Sicily, but the pursuing Waller gang eventually snatched the roulette wheel and opened a gap in time and space. However, their group travels to the ancient Roman era where Archimedes was located...
"Indiana Jones 5" stills
The biggest selling point, or attraction, of the Indiana Jones franchise is undoubtedly archaeology and exploration. However, in the latest fifth part, the content that is really related to this occupies a very limited space, replaced by one action scene after another. Indeed, watching the wrinkled Dr. Jones fight hand-to-hand for a while, wield a long whip for a while, dive into the deep sea for a while, climb a cliff for a while, and admire Harrison Ford's old man. However, as an audience, it is more distressing to think that he is eighty years old after all, and to watch such an elderly person complete a series of action scenes in a long two-and-a-half-hour length, is more distressing than enjoyable.
A collection of big scenes in the film
What's more, in the past, the action scenes in "Indiana Jones" mostly took place in the bridges of specific archaeological expeditions, and the essence was to serve the content. But in "Indiana Jones 5", whether it is Jones fighting Nazi officers on a train, galloping in a downtown New York, or chasing a car in a narrow alley in Morocco, it has nothing to do with the content of archaeological expeditions. These action scenes may occur in "Fast and Furious" or "Mission Impossible", which is essentially decoupled from the core theme of "Indiana Jones".
In addition to the theme of the treasure hunting expedition, the first four "Indiana Jones" also have their own highlights. For example, the fast-paced transitions in the first part, one ring after another, the climax is stacked; The curious scene in the second part, I believe that those who have seen it will not forget the "gluttonous feast"; In the third part, Jones' reconciliation with his father, Revan Phoenix, who plays teenager Jones, and Sean Connery, who plays his father, are nostalgic; In the fourth part, Jones and his son's recognition, Shia LaBeouf joined with affection, and at that time, he had not completely released himself, holding the two major IPs of "Transformers" and "Indiana Jones", like the successor of Harrison Ford. To say that the focus of this fifth part, according to the content, it should be "crossing". But in fact, the real thing about the world after crossing is only a little in the end of the film.
"Indiana Jones 5" stills
Further, Lucas originally set a very interesting tone for the "Indiana Jones" series, that is, wearing the mantle of archaeology, stuffed with many strange and chaotic legends, true and false. If the appearance of aliens in the previous film is still close to science fiction and based on historical events, then Archimedes' appearance in this part can only be said to be fantasy, which deviates from this tone to some extent.
The shaping of the two new characters in "Indiana Jones 5" can hardly be called successful. In the past, the female characters in the "Indiana Jones" series were a bit similar to the Bond girl in the 007 series, although they were vases, they could definitely be the icing on the cake. But the role of Helena, played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, in this film, is inevitably a little congenital: when she was a child, she was obviously a good girl and a schoolboy, and when she grew up, she became a pure money worshiper and a scheming gambler, but such a metamorphosis has no specific plot support. To be honest, cutting this character will have no effect on the entire film. Moreover, the overall temperament of Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who became popular with the British drama "London Life", does not seem to match Helena's character who cheat marriage by coloring and should have some femme fatale temperament.
And Max Mikkelsen's Nazi scientist Waller, in fact, the setting of the character's true colors is also quite weak, but Uncle Mai relied on his own temperament and performance skills to win back a round, at least conveying the madness of this character to the audience.
To be honest, it's hard to understand why Disney had to (spend so much money) on "Indiana Jones 5". Obviously, in the fourth part, Jones has found his son, a successor given to him by God, which is undoubtedly a good time to restart the series. Even if Disney is not satisfied with Shia LaBeouf, it can find a new actor to play Jones II. Of course, perhaps the biggest problem has never been the actors, and the lack of the original George Lucas is the crux of the series' decline.