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Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom – Rewind
In the second in our series of Indian Jones film reviews, we have the sequel in the production time line, but Temple of Doom is actually a prequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark being set in 1935 where Raiders was set in 1936. We start the movie off with Indiana Jones once again played by Harrison Ford and leading lady Willie Scott played by Kate Capshaw, they are getting embroiled in a classy opening movie scene that kicks off the film in dramatic fashion. Later into the scene were introduced to Indy’s sidekick Short Round played by Jonathan Ke Quan who helps Indy and Willie escape from their close encounter with a Shanghai crime boss. This time around the main story has Indy getting involved in a quest to recover a set of missing and sacred stones belonging to a small village that believes that they provide the well being and prosperity of their community.
The plot leads Indy, his sidekick Short Round and Willie to Pankot Palace in India where they uncover some mysterious things going on. Voodoo magic, child slavery and some strange rituals,Indy being Indy isn’t going to let this go on, and at the same time is determined to get the villagers sacred stone back to its rightful owners. Some comedy moments ensue starting with some fine dining that includes such delicacies as chilled monkey brain and live eels, everyone’s favourite! This is swiftly followed up with some devious traps that are almost on par with the ones at the start of Raiders, particularly the lowering ceiling room, which has a great sense of impending tension. With some great action scenes later in the movie, including the mine kart scene that was originally supposed to be in Raiders, The Temple of Doom has some real high points as far as action goes and this is what keeps the movie rolling along as a solid pace.
Overall the tone of The Temple of Doom is pretty Dark, I know when I watched it as a kid I liked it, and it gripped me because of its dark nature, being compelled to watch and see the ending. I can still watch it now although the first half of the movie is rather frantic and ear splitting due in main to Kate Capshaw’s character, the pretty but very loud and shrieking Willie Scott. With its dark look and tone, the Temple of Doom is missing the feisty female lead that was present with Marion Ravenwood and also there in the Last Crusade in the form of Dr. Elsa Schneider, and doesn’t have the variety of locations that the previous 2 movies had.