Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

My history with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is an interesting one. 

Long ago, back at my cousin's house in Nebraska, he was watching this movie. As a 6-8 year old (can't remember exactly when), I had no idea what it was. 

Having joined him about midway through, I started watching right before the temple scene. You know...? The one where the dude rips the beating heart out of the other dude and he's still alive and then burns alive down in the pit? 

To put it lightly, that s**t f**ked me up. I just remember being so terrified that I walked upstairs and had no idea what to do with the rest of my afternoon. It would be a long time again until I watched The Temple of Doom, but I never forgot that moment in my movie-going history. It was likely the first true time that a film had scared me silly. 

Now as I make my way through the Indiana Jones series, I am eager to approach Temple of Doom to see how its aged not only into 2019, but also in the mind of a scared young boy who saw it arguably too early in his life. 

Temple of Doom is often the lower rated "middle child" of the Jones series. Ok, ok...not counting Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but of the original trilogy at least. Rewatching it, and being fairly confident in my ordering of the three films beforehand, I was surprised by how much I genuinely enjoyed Temple of Doom in comparison to what I would have expected. It's easy to see why it's "last place" within the series, but ignoring that those other films even exist, Temple of Doom is certainly one hell of an adventure. 

Aside from a completely unnecessary opening musical number, Temple of Doom effortlessly moves from one memorable scene to the next. Few end up reaching the heights of the best of Raiders of the Lost Ark, but they're still tons of fun in their own right. The temple scene is obviously one of the most iconic across the whole series (again...how are these only PG?!?) and beyond that we have a slew of fun action scenes and humor. Perhaps even more than Raiders, I saw the influences that the Uncharted series took as their inspiration. As a slight tangent, I think an Uncharted series with the right lead and an emphasis on practical effects could be a modern day Indiana Jones, especially if it tells unique stories from the videogames and just gives us Nathan Drake the way Indiana Jones just gives us...well...Indiana Jones. And that's perhaps what this original trilogy, including Temple of Doom, is so good at delivering: adventure with our hero at the center. 

Now just put this in 2019, new actor, and you got yourself an awesome Uncharted movie

Nightmares I tell you! Nightmares!

Of course there are some elements that don't work as well in this second film. For starters, it feels far more contained than the previous film where our group travels to an abandoned castle...because they were asked to?...and they're there for the remainder of the film. There's certainly no globetrotting or substantial scene changes which makes the film feel a little longer than it should. There's also a lacking sense of mystery that was so prominent within Raiders. The Ark of the Covenant was a jaw dropping artifact and one that has real historical context whereas here we're told of these stones that...keep a town healthy? It's much lower stakes and right off the bat you don't care nearly as much with the fate of the world (or something larger than a town) on the line. Additionally, it has some silly moments that are somewhat over the top. As annoying as Willie (Kate Capshaw) is to start, she grows on you and provides some hilarious moments (chilled monkey brains for dessert anyone?) and the addition of Short Round (Jonathan Ke Quan) as a mini-Indy with a thick accent is an endearing an very funny character.

As it has aged, I think Temple of Doom has actually improved when it's compared to its [arguably better] brethren. It's great as a standalone film and it's hard to live in the shadow of something so tremendous as Raiders. Even still though we're given a swagger-filled performance by Ford with a constant string of memorable moments that include the aforementioned heart removal scene, a voodoo doll, an exotic cuisine, a thrilling minecart escape, a bridge hundreds of feet over hungry gators, and many more. 

And it's nice that I can actually make it through the Mortal Kombat heart sucking scene now...

CONS

• Feels more contained than the other films because it sticks to one location
• Some of the humor is too over the top + unnecessary starting musical number
• Less mystery around the stones and what they actually mean, especially when compared to the history-heavy artifacts of the other films. Makes Temple feel low-stakes and hard for the audience to care about some legend they've never really heard about
• Few special effects moments that haven't aged gracefully

PROS

• Offers up pure adventure with an iconic hero at its center. Once again, Harrison Ford proves why he was one of the biggest movie stars of all time
• Better supporting cast this time around with Short Round being consistently hilarious and Willie eventually growing on you
• Tons of memorable scenes and thrilling action beats. The final 20 minutes is a blast
• Another classic original score
• Spielberg proves that Jones isn't just a fluke and furthers his building blocks of one of the best trilogies ever

Retro Review Score | 8.5/10