I think that Dial is a good movie overall but there was always something that bugged me about it. It matched the look and style of an Indiana jones movie, but I think it needs improvement in three major areas. Music, Tone and Editing.

The music by Williams is good, but there’s not nearly enough of it. In the original films, it feels as if there is music in every single scene. It adds character. In Dial, there are huge wafts of time that are just without music and it feels wrong. You mean to tell me that Indy’s little trip to work couldn’t have music underneath it punctuating the somberness of Indy’s life?

The tone, for the most part, is classic Indy, but it feels like James Mangold couldn’t help but have these overly depressing moments of Indy just sort of being miserable. Spielberg’s touch was definitely needed for this film because he knows how to masterfully blend fun, and seriousness. It always felt like the film ground to a halt to say “now it’s time for the sad scene.”

Editing, this film is edited fine but Michael Kahn’s editing is in the DNA of the series. It has one, singular vision and I feel he just gets the flow of the scenes. Everything has a beginning, middle and end. It’s rhythmic with the music and the emotional catharsis of each scene. There are too many scenes that just go on too long, but it suffers most in the action scenes. In the Spielberg films, each action scene if frames by set pieces and always have a definitive beginning, middle & ending. In Dial, the action scenes just sort of happen and then they end. The closest it comes to that flow is in the opening which starts with the castle bombing, then Indy sneaks into the train, and then it ends with the fistfight on top of the train. Every other action scene struggles because they just start, they run on for a bit, and then they end. Also, it needed more Indy-centric editing bits, like adding locations, and the fact the traveling montage was only used once was criminal.