Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) sits at a table with a crime boss in night club in China. He presents the man with an artifact he found, but he soon realizes that the crime boss has poisoned him. A shootout ensues; Indy winds up flying out the window of the club with its main singer, Willy (Kate Capshaw). They then get in Indy's car, where his new sidekick Short Round (Ke Huy Quan), a ten year-old kid, is driver. The criminals pursue in a furious chase scene, before the three heroes escape on an airplane; headed to dramatically crash at the hands of the villains.

Like its predecessor Raiders of the Lost Arc (the beginning claims this however is a prequel), the Temple of Doom opens with a bang; an engaging, entrancing, and exciting action set piece that recalls the fun and enjoyment of the original. However the sequel quickly loses the energy; whereas Raiders never paused for a breather between its high-voltage action scenes, TOD leaves plenty of empty space between the opening shootout and the next sequence: the end.

It was a good idea of the creators of the film to not make a re-hash of the first. The darker mood and story they create is a good idea; however the film is too dark and not very fun. In the sequel hearts are torn out, sacrifice rituals are performed, Indy goes evil even (drinking blood? That's more sci-fi then action; the series at that point losing its feeling of realism amidst the extraordinary), there's a cavern full of an endless supply of bugs, and kids are forced into slavery. TOD loses the fun amidst the revolting darkness, stopping for too long a breather between the action.

Harrison Ford is still an iconic and likable hero; his grit and charm are intact. But his supporting cast is less then welcome this time around. Kate Capshaw is an annoying scream-machine of cliché feminism; really she does little more then to complain, scream and even do both at the same time. In the previous film, Indy had a playful relationship with his girl; in this film his relationship with Willy can just be described as weird. Ke Huy Quan may be fine, but his Jackie-Chan inspired karate (he takes down villains with ease) takes away any believability the film once had.

The art direction befits the film's bleak attitude, and John Williams also follows suit; creating a darker, more sinister variety of musical composition that befits the film's evil turn.

The fun doesn't begin again until the impressive mine cart chase begins; from this point onward master-director Steven Spielberg creates tension and excitement, fulfilling the promise to entertain. But it's far too late to salvage the entire film; an unholy mess of un-enjoyable plot. There is no good-natured soul or much fun to the Temple of Doom. There is however a disgusting dinner scene in which the natives eat everything from live snakes, to cockroaches, to monkey brains, to human eyeballs. Lovely, just lovely. 6/10

"He's not insane, he's crazy!"-Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Director:	Steven Spielberg
Producer:	Robert Watts
Writer:	George Lucas,Willard Huyck

Seen it:	Nej
Nr of disks/tapes:	2
Storage device:	Divx 1