Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a very interesting watch with many different viewpoints on it. Some say it was too dark and sickening to watch, and others thought it was a good Indiana Jones movie where the actors brought the movie to life. Many movies struggle with satisfying everybody, but they try to conform with everybody except for Temple of Doom as it took a risky dark cult like turn to the Indiana Jones series.
The movie definitely had some very dark parts in a different way. The dark parts weren’t scary or disturbing but there were some strange things like stealing children and taking them as slaves or human sacrifices. One of the scenes had the henchman whipping a kid who fell while mining away at the rock and moments like these were just uncomfortable.
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One critic named Dave Kehr claimed that the overall attitude of the movie was a ten year trying to gross out his sister with bugs. This is very apparent in the movie as there are two scenes that have the three main protagonist sit at a dinner table only to find the hosts eating bugs or brains. There was another scene which had the main characters walking on bugs and Willie Scott screaming her lungs out for what seems like no real reason.
This brings me to another topic that made this movie hard to watch and that was Short Round and Willie Scott. The actors are good in their own right but the way the characters interact in the movie made some annoying moments. I thought that Willie Scott was the most annoying thing about the movie with her constant screaming. I know that she is playing the damsel in distress role but it gave me a headache, and I’m not the only one as other critics claim she is quite annoying. Short Round seemed to be just in the way most of the time and was awkwardly slid into the group for a comical reason but it didn’t work for me.
Another critic thought that the nonstop action left no time for acting, but the action I thought was the better part to the movie. Of course there is going to be tons of action in a movie like this one and there was a good amount of downtime that allowed for some character screen time, even if the characters were bad.
One thing I think everyone can agree on though is Harrison Ford’s acting as it was splendid. The witty lines Indiana would give during the stunts and strong performance did make up for some of the bad parts in the movie. The stunts and crazy rollercoaster of a movie also helped pick up the slack for some of the before mentioned faults. The excitement and suspense that is present in the series was still there and this one had a unique taste that isn’t all bad.
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Another person says that Temple of Doom was there favorite when they were a kid because of it’s more goofy tone, but when looking back at it they think it was the worst of the trilogy. When I watched it as a kid I thought it was funny and scary but that’s all the movie is; humor for children with a dark twist to try and cater to adults. Another thing I didn’t pay attention to when I was a kid was the plot. The story was alright but the first 15 minutes have nothing to do with the actual movie besides introducing some characters that could have been done better. After this they just crash there plane and end up at this village and the story randomly starts. From here on out though the story gets deep and there becomes one problem that leads to a bigger one and so on.
This Indiana is definitely your average blockbuster with a hero who has to constantly save his girl from the bad guy. As he goes further into the story he realizes there is a bigger problem then he originally thought and the trials ahead test him as a person and his wits. The action and suspense as the three protagonists are trying to save this village and the kids from the evil Mola Ram carried the enjoyment of the movie. This film definitely had its positives and negatives with the negatives shining a little brighter in my opinion.