The jury is out on Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and the verdict isn’t promising at all. The film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival last week and, while it received an impressive five minutes standing ovation, it has debuted with less than impressive ratings on Rotten Tomatoes.
Currently, the film has a critics approval rating of 50% after 30 reviews. Unless things improve drastically, it will take up the unenviable position of the worst-reviewed installment in the franchise, displacing its latest predecessor.
Fortunately, the film only has a handful of reviews so far, which means that the final rating can still change in the days leading up to its release.
Given the film cost $300 million to make, Disney and Lucasfilm will hope this is the case. More importantly, Disney will pray that audiences disagree with these early critics and show up in theaters to watch the film when it comes out.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny follows the titular character and his efforts to ensure an old foe and Nazi, Jürgen Voller, doesn’t get his hands on the famed Antikythera. The Antikythera is a famed dial that gives the holder the power to journey through time. Jones’s opponent wants to use the object to go back in time and undo the mistakes that made the Nazis lose the Second World War.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is the fifth and final installment of the Indiana Jones franchise. Among other things, Harrison Ford, who stars as the titular character, has revealed he has no interest in returning for the role.
Apart from Ford, the film stars Mads Mikkelsen, Antonio Banderas, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, John Rhys-Davies, Toby Jones, and Boyd Holbrook, among others. James Mangold helmed it based on a script by himself, David Koepp, John-Henry Butterworth, and Jez Butterworth.
Steven Spielberg, who directed the first four films in the franchise, and George Lucas, who created the series, served as executive producers.
By the way, the other four films in the franchise – Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull – will arrive on Disney+ on May 31, alongside the prequel series, The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny will arrive in theaters on June 30, 2023.
