Rating of
2.5/4
"Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 03/29/12
Swashbuckling archaeologist Indiana Jones returns to investigate an evil cult in India who have kidnapped the local children to search for the sacred stones of Shankara. Temple Of Doom has long been considered the weak link of the original trilogy, mainly because of the ill conceived inclusion of two sidekicks. The romance with Kate Capshaw is unconvincing as she literally spends the entire film either screaming or whining, and adding a streetwise kid to the mix is always the kiss of death. This obviously calculated attempt to appeal to a younger audience is added to by some broadly over-played humour that is completely at odds with the dark tone of the rest of the film. In the unlikely event that kids want to see a film about child abduction, slavery and human sacrifice I doubt very much they'd want to see their hero drinking blood from a human head and turning into an evil devil worshipper. In fact, looking at it objectively, the plot is really just a series of excuses for self-indulgent set pieces and contains a few serious lapses in logic and some of the dialogue is just plain bad. But it's Indiana Jones, so I'm just not objective about it and the combination of Spielberg, Ford and Williams ensures that it is at least entertaining throughout. Despite the flak it has taken, The Crystal Skull is not the weakest of the franchise; that dubious honour falls to this film but that's not to say it's bad. Just a little crude and sloppy when compared to Raiders and The Last Crusade.
