Daily Mail, Brian Viner
‘The bumbling pensioners of Dad’s Army hardly ever come to mind as Ford, 42 years after his first outing as Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark, rises doughtily, and only a little arthritically, to the occasion. ‘
The Times, Kevin Maher
‘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.’
Daily Telegraph, Robbie Collin
‘It ultimately feels like a counterfeit of priceless treasure: the shape and the gleam of it might be superficially convincing for a bit, but the shabbier craftsmanship gets all the more glaring the longer you look. ‘
The Washington Post, Michael O’Sullivan
‘Critical thinking was never a prerequisite for appreciating an Indiana Jones movie. (It is, in fact, a detriment.) And this one is no exception.
If “The Dial of Destiny” takes its cast somewhere far-fetched — and boy, does it ever — it makes sure to bring us all back to where we belong, just in time for the closing credits.’
Esquire, Josh Rosenberg
‘Nostalgia has dominated reboots and sequels in Hollywood for the past decade. It doesn’t always work, but it’s employed most fittingly in a film like Indiana Jones 5.
‘We’re saying goodbye to Indy, but it’s no funeral. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny gives audiences the chance to spend a couple more hours having fun with Indiana Jones again.’
Financial Times, Raphael Abraham
‘What’s vexing is the nagging feeling that there’s a much better Indiana Jones film buried in there somewhere. But it would require a feat of archaeology — or at least a rewrite and some judicious editing — to excavate it.’
Rolling Stone, David Fear
‘Ford still has the fortitude to play the part. But just having him show up to crack whips and crack wise in the name of bringing back that old Indy thrills-spills-chills magic isn’t enough of an excuse to have him don the fedora one last time.’
TIME, Stephanie Zacharek
‘There are so many chase sequences… that the movie seems held together with slender bits of plot, rather than the other way around. Worse yet, they’re so heavily CGI’ed that they come off as grimly dutiful rather than thrilling or delightful. ‘
Vanity Fair, Richard Lawson
‘One can feel the four credited screenwriters grasping at inspiration and coming up short. What they did manage to make would be perfectly fine as a standalone adventure film starring some other character, but it’s not worthy of the whip. ‘
