Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

Originally Reviewed

Friday May 19, 2006

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. This follow up film to the highly successful Raider's of the Lost Ark. Temple of Doom is well known for the drama it received due to its darker storyline and themes, so much so that after the release of the film it lead to the inception of the PG-13 rating. Over the years Temple of Doom appears to be people's least favorite of the Indiana Jones saga, but in my opinion there's no bad Indiana Jones film, sure Temple of Doom is a total 360 from Raiders of the Lost Ark, but that's what makes it great! 

The basic premise of Temple of Doom, for those of you who have lived underground your whole life and not seen an Indiana Jones film, is a little different than other two adventures. First off, technically Temple of Doom could actually be considered a prequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark as it is actually set before the events of the first film. The film sees our hero Indiana Jones, accompanied by Short Round, and Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw, Spielberg's wife) as they end up in a remote village in India after their plane is sabotaged and begins to descend towards the earth. The inhabitants of this village believe that they were sent to by their god to recover a sacred stone which was stolen from their village.

It is the belief of the villagers that a dangerous cult by the name of the Thuggee, have reemerged at Pankot Palace, they have kidnapped their children, stolen their sacred stone and are engaged in a series of evil rituals that could threaten all civilization. In fact it is true, the villager's sacred stone is one of five magical Shankara stones which is said to have immense power and bring forth fortune and glory. 

Indiana Jones sets off with his young sidekick and loud mouth lounge singer, to recover the lost Shankara stones and to bring back life into the small village. But he underestimates the power of the evil that lurks in the bowels of Pankot Palace, and he and his group is captured by the Thuggee and are at the risk of being sacrificed to the voodoo god. Can Indiana escape the mystical powers of Thuggee or will he be subjected to an everlasting nightmare!?!

What makes this film so great is that it's not comparable to the other two films. Lucas and Spielberg took a big risk on going in a different direction and it worked out for the better. Temple of Doom has my favorite intro out of all the films, I think the whole dance number in the Chinese club was brilliant, and really helps to incorporate all the main characters in the film as well as provide a very exciting and amusing side story. The only thing I didn't like was Indiana Jones drinking the poison, how stupid would you have to be to drink something that is given to you by a group of guys who attempted to rob and kill you the night before and are now trying to cheat you!?!  I guess that's why the villain states that the poison was faster than Jones... actually I think Jones was just stupid! 

Temple of Doom also offers up some of the best action packed sequences out of all three films, from the club scene, the entire mine sequence with the rock crusher and the mine cars, to the classic rope bridge sequence. And don't forget the classic dinner sequence with the baby snakes, the eye ball soup and chilled monkey brains! Overall, my only grips about the film are about Kate Capshaw, I thought at times her character was a little too annoying which at times drew away from the film, and made her character more of a nuisance than a love interest. In the end Temple of Doom is a worthy follow up Raiders of the Lost Ark, and my second favorite in the Indiana Jones trilogy!

9/10