CHRISTIAN TOTO: Reviews Confirm Worst (Woke) Fears About Indy’s ‘Dial of Destiny.’

The sequel’s Cannes Film Festival premiere allowed select film critics to screen the movie, slated for a June 30 release. And the early notices are less than kind.

“Dial of Destiny” boasts a limp 43 percent “rotten” rating at Rotten Tomatoes, a critical review aggregator site.

The BBC review called the film “gloomy and depressing,” but that’s not the critical takeaway from the pan.

[“Dial of Destiny”] has the air of a film passing the torch (or whip) to the next generation. But it does all this in an even gloomier fashion than The Force Awakens did. I’m not sure how many fans want to see Indiana Jones as a broken, helpless old man who cowers in the corner while his patronising goddaughter takes the lead, but that’s what we’re given, and it’s as bleak as it sounds.

Ouch.

Variety confirms what many suspected about the belated sequel – it’s a vehicle for Disney, Inc. to replace Ford’s Indy with [Phoebe] Waller-Bridge’s heroine.

Which worked out well for the (also Kathleen Kennedy-produced) Star Wars sequels.