Review of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) by Jeffrey M — 07 Jun 2014

The second installment of the series offers a darker tone, compelling scenes, and an increasing adult sensibility amidst a plot which is bit more silly. What this film really succeeded at was underscoring and refining the personality of Indiana, who is seemingly even more witty and cunning, though still flawed and occasionally rough around the edges. The scenes that are centered on him, such as the opening, are often astounding. Temple of Doom never loses its dramatic heft, and remains engaging throughout. It is a weaker film than its predecessor in a few ways, however, with action sequences that go on too long. Whereas it's just as kinetic and fast past as Raiders, Raiders was more successful at breaking up the massive set pieces and that way felt bigger. Temple, being confined to essentially one location, does not have that sense of vastness. Still, the sequences could have been split up more. Kate Capshaw's character of Willie Scott is also not quite as compelling as Karen Allen's character of Marion Ravenwood, being even more shrill. Overall, these are bit minor criticisms of a film that certainly surpasses the majority of action films today, and has been a bit unfairly maligned in the series.

4/5 Stars.