As unpopular as it remains 15 years on from its debut, it’s worth remembering that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was warmly received by the majority of critics, even if it didn’t take long for fans of the legendary franchise to turn on a film packed to the rafters with questionable creative decisions, sketchy CGI, and goddamned aliens.
Based on everything we’d seen, heard, and been told up until this point, there were plenty of reasons to expect director James Mangold to send Harrison Ford’s iconic adventurer out with a bang in Dial of Destiny, which has been confirmed as the final installment of the series. On the big screen, at least, but that’s another harrowing conversation for another time.
Unfortunately, the reception to Indy’s swansong following its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival could be described as more tepid than overwhelmingly enthusiastic, leaving Dial of Destiny with a mountain to climb on Rotten Tomatoes already. At the time of writing, the first entry not helmed by Steven Spielberg only has a 50 percent approval rating after the first wave of reviews rolled in, which isn’t what anyone was expecting.
Of course, it’s still incredibly early days for Dial of Destiny – which doesn’t even come to theaters until the end of next month – so there’s still plenty of time for the globetrotting spectacular to ensure it doesn’t end up as the worst-reviewed Indiana Jones outing of them all. Surely it won’t prove to be anywhere near as divisive and polarizing as its predecessor, but let’s keep those fingers crossed just in case.