BatStarIndyFreak

I kept seeing the DVD at Walmart, but never felt enough intrigue to pick it up. When it came on Tubi, I decided, what the heck. This would have become a donation at the thrift store if I had bought the DVD, because once was enough. Why the action and the stakes were strong enough. The plot and set up were utter nonsense, all to include each of the villains for fan service. It felt like they were trying to give a new angle on each of them in their separate dominions in feudal Japan, but nothing fit. The Joker's storyline was interesting, but all the rest felt pointless.

I say give it a whirl of it comes up for free, but don't pay anything for it.

One perceived negative from several critics is that it's all too familiar stuff that bombarded viewers of the Fast n' Furious franchise. Thankfully, I was never drawn to watch any of it, because I enjoyed the heavy duty vehicular and combat action to hilt, along with the core plot. I loved what the Rock did with his role as a war-weary elf, Lucy Liu as the captain on the deck, Chris Evans as the mercenary with attitude, and JK Simmons as the millennial veteran Santa Claus. Perhaps I'm more forgiving when it comes to just about any movie genre, laced with a holiday theme. But my daughter and I came out fully andrenalized.

I saw the Rotten Tomatoes crawl to the high 60's, then the audience score in the high 80's, and went in the the theater with cautious optimism. I came out with a high level of fulfillment.

I was surprised to see the hate on Helena as a character. For one thing, she's not even close to being as annoying as was Willie in Temple of Doom, and it was an adjustment to realize that she wasn't the sweet "Wombat" Indy knew when she was a little girl, but I truly enjoyed her as her own form of adventurer.

The opening scene has that Spielberg chaotic action going and part of you wishes you could have seen that fleshed out into a full movie about 1996.

As is often said by many, you get longer breathers between action scenes -which did keep me on the edge of my seat- than is characteristic for an Indy film, but for me I thought it worked for an Indy (in terms of the character, not actor) in his 70's who has thus slowed down, and we're given more poignancy in those scenes because of that.

I was very weary when it came to bringing time travel into the Indy-verse, but while I was terrified for a spat of where it looked like it would go while running that phase in the movie, they didn't go there, and the final wrap-up was the sweetest I've experienced for quite some time..

I was extremely shocked to read titles and thumbnails of some reviews of this on YouTube, that were extremely seething, which really disappoints just for how it feels like merely clickbait.

But I wholeheartedly love and recommend "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" as wonderfully crafted Indiana Jones Valedictory.