On my list of hottest movies to check out in summer 2023, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny was not in my top five. It was just something I was going to see to hang out with a parent or get away for a night. And to say I was surprised is an understatement.

Now, this movie is the kind of one that you don’t spoil. So, I’m following the rules of nerd code and not spoiling the movie.

This movie does something that’s pretty rare for reboots of older 1980s-era movies–it doesn’t feed towards the incel nerds only (see: the 2015 reboot of Ghostbusters). While there is a new female character, the movie does not focus on how hot she is. It’s an Indiana Jones movie and it’s not pandering to the creepy fans.

One thing that I especially liked was the fact that there was more to the plot. There was richer storytelling, a more fleshed out setting and time, and there were more interesting characters than had been seen in a singular movie before. Another thing is how interesting the artifact is. In the past, an Indiana Jones artifact would be important because of Christianity and that’s the only reason that random thing is important. This time it was different, and I really enjoyed that.

Overall, this was a good and surprising watch as it connected strongly to the ’80s movies and yet stepped into a whole new era.