Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Modern Storytelling

My wife and I watched “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” and quite honestly, I thought that it was okay at best. It was too long with certain scenes that could have been cut out like one of the car chase scenes. Also, Helena Shaw, played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, was simply unlikeable, not having any particularly platonic chemistry with Indiana Jones, and being a femme fatale, a geeky bookworm, a thief, a friend, but never having a defined character. Indiana Jones himself was an ornery, unenthusiastic drunk pretty much through the whole movie. I can honestly see why it has done below projections in the box office, and it looks to be struggling to make a profit.

I think that this speaks to a larger problem with modern storytelling in mainstream entertainment. For one thing, studios are coming out with remakes, reboots, and sequels that no one really asked for. When original material comes out and flop, then they claim that audiences today are asking for known intellectual properties. However, there is no reflection as to the faults of the original material such as bad writing, a lack of real progression with the characters, messaging overtaking good storytelling or something else.

As someone who writes stories, it is understandably very difficult, and at times, tedious. I do think that some of the storytelling that we have been seeing as of late has shown a regression in the process. We are being told things instead of being shown, for example, and the absence of a hero’s journey with certain protagonists has created characters who are not relatable nor particularly likeable. I can only hope that this changes in the future.