A Nazi colonel is moving some looted artworks towards the end of WWII - amongst which is the legendary lance that supposedly pierced the body of Christ. Luckily - for the colonel, that is - renowned archeologist "Voller" (Mads Mikkelsen) is on hand to advise that it's a fake - but by way of compensation, he informs the man that there is a far greater artefact on board their train. The "Dial of Destiny" - designed of old by Archimedes and reputed to have the ability to facilitate time travel. Our eponymous and intrepid adventurer is also on the train, with his scholarly pal "Basil" (Toby Jones) and together they manage to secure this gadget and flee - only to find that it is but half of the device. Years go by and "Indy" (Harrison Ford) is now a soon-to-be divorced, retiring, professor who encounters the daughter of his late friend - "Helena/Wombat" (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) and soon the two are engaged as a slightly untrustworthy pairing seeking to retrieve the other half of this dial before the newly empowered "Voller" manages to manipulate the CIA into helping him to obtain it and rewrite history. Aside from the fact that the star is still very much a star, and his charisma does lots to keep this going; the film is itself a really rather unremarkable, procedural, adventure story that includes all the staple ingredients of the first three films but without the depth of the supporting characters. Mikkelsen doesn't really cut it as a baddie any more and Waller-Bridge is largely out of her depth and relies rather heavily on her teenage sidekick "Teddy" (Ethann Isidore) to be the foil for her rather obvious witticisms and slightly unscrupulous behaviour. It doesn't hang about and the visual effects are pretty standard but the writing is really quite pedestrian and the ending seemed borne more of a need to finish the film rather than complete the really pretty thin story that really does tee up a sequel! It's perfectly watchable, but is a distant cousin of the earlier iterations for this character and is also perfectly forgettable too.
