'Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny' feels about as fresh as the relic they're hunting

Aging rockers don’t want to just play the hits, they want you to hear the new stuff, too, man.

But the new stuff is when people take bathroom breaks. So you wind up with, for instance, a Rolling Stones tour that is basically a jukebox of their greatest hits.

That’s kind of what “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” plays like. We know this character, his moves, his attitude — we grew up watching. There’s a satisfaction — pardon the pun — to it all, but it’s also limiting as an artistic achievement. Not everything has to be, of course, a good thing.

That said, it’s never not going to be fun to see Harrison Ford tug on his fedora and grab his whip.

But we’ve seen it all before. “Dial of Destiny” knows this, and knows we want to see it again.

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The plot of 'Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny'

Director James Mangold kicks off the film with a breakneck action sequence, a hallmark of the franchise. It’s set during World War II. Harrison Ford, who of course plays Indy, is, ahem, 80.

Not to worry. Using de-aging technology, there he is, looking as young and as spry as he did in “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”

Yuck.

It’s well done, as well done as any use of the technology so far (except sometimes when he talks). If you’re going to this movie, you’ve almost certainly seen the films that came before it. It’s a throwback, a reminder of why we love these movies (except for the last one). But who needs a reminder?

Whatever the case, it’s a well-made sequence. Indy and Basil Shaw (Toby Jones) are on a train trying to grab historical artifacts from Nazis, including Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), a mathematician who really wants the Dial of Destiny — actually the antikythera, created by Archimedes, who believed it could help him find cracks in time that would allow travel into the past.

Flash ahead to 1969, when a more age-appropriate Ford plays Indy, even more curmudgeonly, complaining about the noise from a neighbor’s apartment. He’s separated from his wife Marion; his son died in combat in Vietnam (sorry, Shia LaBeouf, it just didn’t work out). So he’s alone, and despite everything we know about him, it doesn’t really suit him.

He’s playing out the string of his classes, through which students snooze, till retirement. But one day — the day of his retirement — a student in the back knows all the answers. It’s Helena Shaw (the brilliant Phoebe Waller-Bridge), his goddaughter and the daughter of the since-deceased Basil Shaw, whose obsession with the antikythera drove him mad.

Helena thinks she’s found the other half of the antikythera and enlists Indy to help her find it. He’s reluctant to do so, but events conspire to change his mind — events orchestrated by Indy’s old foe Voller, now working for the U.S. government (his brilliance led to man landing on the moon), but he's secretly still a Nazi to his core.

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'Raiders of the Lost Ark' was more efficient and more fun

Thus begins an endless series of action scenes and marathon chases, so long that they drain all of the energy out. Mangold and Ford lean into the franchise’s greatest hits, only they take longer to play out.

Indy’s too old for this stuff, as is Ford, but that’s part of the point. Indy was never James Bond anyway (remember the iconic scene in “Raiders” where he wearily shoots the guy with the swords, rather than fight him?).

As fun as it is to see Ford — it’s fun to see him in anything — there’s a staleness to the film. Most of the franchise has a magic about it, genuine movie magic. Here it seems more perfunctory, with the notable exception of Waller-Bridge. Like always — the second season of “Fleabag” is one of the best things that’s ever been on TV — she radiates an intelligence that in no way undercuts her comic chops. Better still, her character is more complex than you might think, with motives of her own.

Mikkelsen doesn’t have much to do. If you’ve seen the TV series “Hannibal” you know what a formidable villain he can play. Here he’s Generic Bad Guy, and about as menacing as that sounds.

“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” is ultimately an OK entry in a legendary franchise. It’s fun enough, but why bother?

'Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny' 2.5 stars

Great ★★★★★ Good ★★★★

Fair ★★★ Bad ★★ Bomb ★

Director: James Mangold.

Cast: Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen.

Rating: PG-13 for sequences of violence and action, language and smoking.

How to watch: In theaters Friday, June 30.

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 'Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny' review: Dull chapter for Indy