Opening in 1945 we see Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) and his friend Basil Shaw (Toby Jones) make the acquaintance of some Nazis whom they are trying to liberate precious antiquities from. It is here that Jones will first encounter the Dial of Destiny and Mads Mikkelsen’s evil Dr. Voller. Fast forward to 1969 and Indiana Jones is on the brink of retirement when Shaw’s daughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) comes to him hoping that he will help her find the Dial, an item her father obsessed over for his entire life.

Indiana and Helena’s adventures will take them from America through Tangier, Greece and Sicily where they will bicker in a similar manner to how Indiana did with Marion, Willie and Mutt in his other adventures. We will see a red line make its way across a map to mark their journey and encounter a young man named Teddy (Ethann Isidore) who will drive them in a mad escape effort not unlike Short Round did in Temple of Doom. Jones will be seen lecturing to his students although now they can barely stay awake at the old mans lectures rather than being dreamy eyed like they were in Raiders of the Lost Ark. And of course there will be a whip, a hat and some wise cracks.

It is almost like Indiana Jones by numbers as it only occasionally captures the magic of the earlier films. It is a film that I never found myself overly loving or hating. It achieves what a good action adventure movie should and it does so using a beloved character. Perhaps the magic is gone because James Mangold has taken over directorial duties from Steven Spielberg who made the other four films, or perhaps it is because Harrison Ford is an 80 year old man and there is a requirement for lots of stunt doubles or it might simply just be that films watched in our youth have a nostalgic air about them and it is hard to live up to that?

There is lots to enjoy of course. Harrison Ford just seems to be getting better with age and his performances in “legacy sequels” such as Blade Runner 2049, Star Wars: The Last Jedi and this are wonderful. The final set piece takes a big swing at something fun and I think it hits quite well whilst the final farewell is an emotional one. The de-aging technology in the opening set piece is pretty good and the tuck tuck racing sequence is fun.

And there is lots that does not work quite as well. There are action sequences that are aggressively dark, especially the first one that make it incredibly difficult to enjoy and just feel like they are hiding CGI fallacies. The cameo from returning actor John Rhys-Davies as Sallah did not feel like it worked whilst another high profile cameo from Antonio Banderas also seemed wasted. Mads Mikkelsen’s villain is possibly the least interesting of all five of the films in the series and the absence of a Paramount logo fade in opening was a huge disappointment to me (they use the Lucasfilm logo instead where as the previous four films have used the Paramount logo).

Overall I think it is an enjoyable finale to a loved character but it is not going to capture your heart as the other films may have done.