Review of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) by Nomad67 — 13 Aug 2016
The only nice thing about this film is seeing Harrison Ford in his Indy costume while still in his prime. The rest of the film is a dark, noisy mess. It is easily the weakest entry of the sequels to Raiders of the Lost Ark.
The character of Willie Scott was about as deadly to the film as Jar-Jar Binks was to Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. She's given tons of screen time to whine, scream, and complain about just about everything around her.
The mcguffin of "Magic Rocks" was weak too. Following the Ark of the Covenant, it would have been better to go with the Holy Grail instead and worry about a Mcguffin for Indy 3 later. Perhaps a fan edit could undo much of the damage by cutting Willie's scenes by about half, but I know of no such fan edit.
As it stands, it is a dark ugly mess. As an over-correction, Indy3 was too cutesy by half; which is why I thought the balance applied to Crystal Skull was just about right...even though the Mcguffin there was weak too.
My guess is that Indy5 will be more like Bond, and have Indy fighting over a conventional menace instead of an ancient mystical one.
This review of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) was written by Nomad67 on 13 Aug 2016.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom has generally received positive reviews.
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