With the caveat that immediate reactions from the red carpet premiere or a festival debut of a major tentpole can be skewed towards the positive, the first word for Walt Disney and Lucasfilm’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” is mostly encouraging. The fifth Harrison Ford-starring Indy flick doesn’t open theatrically until the week of June 30, but Cannes audiences got the first look. “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” debuted at the 2008 Cannes Festival, however, that was days away from its Memorial Day weekend launch.
While the previous four films were A) released by Paramount and B) directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by George Lucas, this Disney-distributed entry was helmed by “3:10 to Yuma” and “Ford v Ferarri” director James Mangold.
It once again throws Dr. Henry Jones Jr. into the thick of the action, this time again fighting Nazis– personified by Mads Mikkelsen — amid the 1960s space race. It also features Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Antonio Banderas (as Dr. Jones’ god-daughter), Thomas Kretschmann and Toby Jones.
While few are expecting a critical or consumer reception on par with “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” or even the mostly-celebrated “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” (“Temple of Doom” earned decent reviews but was slammed for being so violent and scary for a PG-rated film that it helped lead to the creation of the PG-13), the word is thus far, well, see for yourself…
