OK, I went into this with really low expectations. Really, really low.
This was a movie seen more to escape the evening heat & humidity, and to postpone seeing "Asteroid City", which I am rather looking forward to.
Anyways, it conforms to every other film in the franchise - formulaic in the extreme, it gives the audience everything it wants. A smoking Nazi Villain (What's worse nowadays, smoking or being a Nazi?, Hell, let's give 'em both), an archeological treasure that has some hidden "magical" properties, a child with unrealized talents, a god-daughter with unrealized sentiment, bugs, snake-ish creatures, skeletons, etc, etc.
The opening scene, fantastic, a marvelously de-aged Harrison Ford, and in the stunt scenes I have to imagine a marvelously reconstructed Harrison Ford onto the stunt double.
This is impressive, this is the future. It's already here.
It recalls a few years ago when they introduced a de-aged Luke Skywalker into the Mandalorian - badly done, as it were, and computer-savvy fans were quick to redo a much better version of it - now, the CGI is indistinguishable. When Harrison Ford is long dead they'll be making Indiana Jones movies...
...back to the film. I left during the tuk-tuk chase scene in Tangiers, returned after some debating and a cigarette, the chase scene was still going on, I missed nothing.
And so I stuck it through to the end.
It was fine, the same schlock that I swallowed hook-line-and sinker when I was a kid, quite possibly better even, only - well, I've seen it all before, and while the quest is different the template, the characters, the film was the same.
I need something a little more challenging - even for my "dumb-ass-movie" time.
That said, a lot of the audience were guffawing at the jokes, and making all the right noises at the right times, it hit it's mark with it's target audience - I don't think many were disappointed. Predictable, yes, but that's what they all wanted. Predictable familiarity.
So, in the end, all in all, if you weren't familiar with Indiana Jones this probably wouldn't disappoint. The fault, I suspect, is less with the film than myself.