Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) review

The fifth - and final - installment of the Harrison Ford-led Indiana Jones series has him mourning the loss of his son in Vietnam, separated from his wife Marion (Karen Allen) and retiring as a professor at Hunter College ... but he gets approached by Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), daughter of his old colleague Basil Shaw (Toby Jones), and asked about a "magical device" called the Antikythera (which can supposedly "predict fissures in time") that she's interested in locating ... but it turns out former Nazi astrophysicist Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen) wants the object as well (to alter history).  The de-aging technology used for the opening sequence (set in 1944) is a bit plastic (although mostly passable), but the fact that Ford is an octogenarian and has to ride a horse through the subway, drive an auto rickshaw around Tangier, deep dive, parachute out of the sky and survive a bullet in the chest is kind of a stretch and might be a lot for some to take.  As if it wasn't already bloated enough, the third act becomes truly dotty ... but it makes sense (in its own way): isn't it (almost) every archaeologist's dream to actually travel to the past and witness firsthand what happened?  You know, hang out with Archimedes, pretend the "modern world" doesn't exist, etc.?