There's one common criticism I agree with: de-aging Harrison Ford is not that convincing. In particular, he still sounds 80 years old, and they had to use CGI for some of his movements. 30 years after Jurassic Park, they still can't animate a person jumping correctly.
Most of the rest of the criticisms don't make any sense to me.
-
The set pieces were memorable: I've read several reviews that complained they couldn't remember anything that happened after the movie was over, but DoD starts off with a thriller, and there are many more scenes that would be heart stopping if Indy didn't have the best plot armor in the business. The last sequence was an absolute jaw dropper and a total surprise.
-
Phoebe Waller-Bridge was good I've read a lot of complaints about her acting in this movie, some reviewers wrote that she ruined the movie for them. I think maybe they disliked her Helena character because she's a scumbag who gets the upper hand over Indy several times?
-
Dial of Destiny has very little fan service. Karen Allen and John Rhys-Davies make appearances, but they are short, muted, tasteful, and they work. There's a picture of Sean Connery seen in passing.
But DoD is more interested in what it means for a fantasy character like Indiana Jones to grow old. It has something to say about that and spends very little time remembering the cool bits of past movies.
The Indy of DoD has become more bitter and more humane in his age.
Indy no longer has the passion of the academic fighting the mercenary archaeologist in Raiders. He's resigned to ubiquity of the Helena's of the world, but he's still determined that he'll win and she'll lose. The theme of disdain for anyone who would work with villains to get what they want is strong in DoD.
Indy still hates Nazis for being an evil empire that would use powerful artifacts to conquer the world, but in DoD he also hates Nazis for being racist, murderous, thieving tyrants who like to start wars. He's still a son-of-a-bitch, but not as much the selfish, driven son-of-a-bitch he used to be.
The movie connects ( without any preaching ) the Nazi hunt for artifacts with their mass looting of their victims, and connects U.S. support of some Nazis post-war with the moral degradation of Helena and any other archaeologist who would work with them.
-
It's a good Indy Movie DoD has one of the spookiest tomb robberies of the series, cool artifiacts, a sense of deep time intruding upon the present, insane car chases, world travel to cool places, and its fun. The only thing its missing is maybe the raw sex appeal of a young Harrison Ford? I don't know.
-
It's not supposed to be realistic 'nough said.
6 The ending is good I do understand folks who didn't like the ending because it was confusing and went by too fast, because most of the people I saw the movie with didn't get it. The ending was subtle and happens quickly. Here's an explanation:
The dial was designed by Archimedes to bring somebody back to Syracuse on the day the Romans invaded. It can't lead you anywhere or anywhen else.
His hope was that someone near his own time who actually cared about Syracuse could use it to bring help to save the city.
When he found that Indiana Jones was the first (and apparently only) person to use it, and he was from 2000 years in the future, Archimedes knew his plan had failed. Indy wanted to stay, but Helena didn't want to change the past any more than they already had. She also wanted him to live, so she dragged him away.
I think DoD could have explained this a bit better. There are some glaring plot holes, but for me, at least, they were fridge moments.
Indy getting a glimpse of the ancient world, but being dragged back by various forces, is a constant in every movie.
I wasn't looking for things to complain about, they were just omnipresent.
By the end of the film I was thinking "man, the only one they didn't do was the 'Damn it, where DOESN'T it hurt?' bit" and then they did that too.
That scene though was the sweetest in the movie and made you realize Indy was an unreliable narrator when he told Helena that (spolier) Mutt's off screen death in the war devastated Marion and ruined their marriage.
She comes in and the first thing she says is "are you back?" You realize he was the one ruined by Mutt's death, not her. The marriage fell apart because of him.
That's the proper way to do a callback like that, whereas something like Helena grabbing the landing gear of an airplane was just like Indy strapping himself to the submarine periscope in the first one. It's a scene steal and nothing more than that.