**THE WACPINE OF ‘INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM’**



WRITING: 5
ATMOSPHERE: 6
CHARACTERS: 6
PRODUCTION: 8
INTRIGUE: 6
NOVELTY: 7
ENJOYMENT: 6

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**The Good:**

Temple of Doom has grown on me over the years. It’s darker, more mature and not well-aged in terms of political correctness, but it's still an entertaining and well-made adventure film.

One of the great things about this sequel/prequel is the constant flow of adrenaline and a feisty pace, which helps to keep the simple story dynamic. The action scenes feel bigger and bolder and the Indian setting feels more exotic.

Spielberg’s direction is still confident, the production design is great and the John Williams score is fittingly ominous for the darker atmosphere of this film.

The mine cart chase and the ensuing bridge sequence might very well be among my all-time favourite sequences in any film.

Harrison Ford is soaking wet from water, sweat and blood through the entire film. That at least makes him a realistic action hero.

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**The Bad:**

I still don't like the overly whiney Kate Capshaw and the annoying Jonathan Ke Quan. Their presence as Indy's sidekicks alone makes this film inferior to the first and third films. As Indy says: "The trouble with her (Willie) is the noise". It doesn't help that they are both very one-dimensional characters.

After the exciting opening sequence, the film somewhat struggles with excitement and build-up until Indy arrives at the mine. There's plenty of pointless filler and too much Willie material.

The dining scene at the palace is one of the clingiest things I've ever seen. A low point for the series. The bedroom sequence after that isn't much better either.

The main problem with this film is that while it turns up the dials on both the humour and the violence, it turns them too far. The humour feels forced and the violence sometimes goes a bit too far. The darkness feels so in your face throughout much of the temple sequence that it stops being entertaining.

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**The Ugly:**

“WE. ARE. GOING. TO. DIE!”

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**WACPINE RATING: 6.29 / 10 = 3 stars**

A divisive chapter among fans of the series, Temple of Doom is easily the silliest of the initial Indiana Jones trilogy. While I've heard the argument that this character thrives on fantastical situations and traces of lore, for my money the envelope is pressed just a bit too far in this instance. Sure, Raiders used the power of the ark to melt the Nazis' skin and Crusade showcased an immortal knight with a collection of stand-in grails, but in each case those represented the climax of a long, grounded adventure - a mere taste of supernatural payoff. Temple shows no such restraint, diving straight in with voodoo dolls, mysterious brainwashing liquids and, memorably, bare-handed heart removals.

It also tinkers with the formula of Jones as a loner, with mixed success. Indy's de-facto sidekick, Short Round, plays up every stereotype of a kid tagalong. He's shoehorned in, no doubt about it, but also adds a new dimension to the larger-than-life lead character via their rapid-fire rapport. The additional presence of a blonde love interest, Willie, seems redundant and unnecessary - her constant shrieks and clueless nature gives the impression Indy's babysitting two kids.

Of course, it's not all bad news: Harrison Ford works wonders with his shadier lines and knocks the good ones right out of the park, the comic relief scenes (though over-applied) work surprisingly well, and the action / adventure elements the series is best known for hit all the right buttons. There's no shortage of that old, familiar formula here, but I wonder if Spielberg and Lucas may have overreached in an effort to make the film more palatable to the Saturday morning cartoon crowd.

Spielberg on devilishly OTT form!

Prior to the long mooted and eventual release of part 4, Temple Of Doom was often thought of as the weakest part of the series, yet it actually appears to me to be maturing nicely with age. With honest appraisal I see the only crime that Temple Of Doom can be charged with is is not being as good as Raiders Of The Lost Ark. But since few films can match that movie's classic status I find it churlish to do the second film down for it.

Temple Of Doom is a frenetic roller-coaster ride, full of enough crash bang wallop fit to grace any action adventure in the history of cinema. The set pieces are pure outrageous fun; life raft escape from a crashing plane, mine cart thrill ride & a bridge sequence that is pure boys own brilliance. And while the film finds Spielberg cramming the action with a darkly sinister streak (hence the PG13 rating), we find that the fun still far outweighs any horror that junior viewers might get from certain scenes.

The film also finds Ford giving his best performance as Indiana Jones since the plot calls for a more humane Jones. In fine physical shape, his witty interplay with Short Round is coupled with a textured feel of friendship that plays real well up on the screen. Kate Capshaw was always going to struggle to get close to Karen Allen's wonderful turn as Marion Ravenwood in Raiders, for where Marion was feisty and tough, Capshaw's Willie Scott is more scare-d-cat and reliant on Indy's guile to save her from peril, but she does OK and looks gorgeous into the bargain.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was a massive hit at the box-office and firmly bought Spielberg the time to then go out and make two dramas in Empire of the Sun (1987) & The Color Purple (1985). He would then return with the third Indiana film to finish what was then a marvellous trilogy; of which Temple Of Doom is the prime piece of meat in the delightful (original) trilogy sandwich. 8.5/10

Decent watch, might watch again, and can only recommend for people who are already big Indiana Jones fans.

This is a much cheaper movie than it's prequel, not in budget, but in writing and characters. With the trade out in female co-leads, Willie is an annoying if not irritating character and the movie might actually be improved if you just edited her out of the movie.

Short-Round is fun, but not to any degree to go as far as saving the movie. The atmosphere of the movie is darker than it is funny where it matters.

I'm not saying it's a bad movie by any means, but I'm not a big Indiana Jones fan and this is definitely the worst of the 4 movies.

Sadly, this chose to go down the route of child stardom - which you either love or hate. Though "Short Round" (Ke Huy Quan) wasn't as irritating as many; he was still pretty persistently annoying and for my money helps make this quite a bit weaker. Aside from the elephant, this also lacks the depth of casting that the first of the films had - Kate Capshaw is almost slapstick as "Wille Scott" and the story isn't so hot, either, as our intrepid explorer has to try and track down some ancient stones that - along with their stolen children - are crucial to the agrarian lives of many peaceful citizens. The roller-coaster finish is still the stuff of Hollywood legend, though - and the films is a classy, well put together tale of clashes of culture with a healthy dose of mysticism, colonialism and Ford certainly has charisma to spare. Good fun, just not quite "Raiders".