Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

I feel like Spielberg let himself be seduced by the gloss and forgot that Indy's magic is equally part of the action and the story. There is plenty of the first in The Temple of Doom (perhaps even a surplus), but the second is a great weakness. The whole thing is built too straightforwardly, without real gradation and any noticeable shift. The environment has a rather dull and backdrop impression, so everything must be saved by the divine Harrison and his boyish charisma. Another problem for me is the screaming beauty Kate Capshaw, who, though I don't hit women, I would like to slap. Her role is what it is, it’s acted great, but it doesn't work for me. And one more negative point for that little kid, who is typically an infantile smirk at the child viewers. Yet at least the feast scene and a few other sequences make Jones' second adventure unforgettable. (04/18/2004)

I took Raiders of the Lost Ark quite lukewarmly, but The Temple of Doom managed to win me over to the Indiana Jones adventures a lot more. I praise the casting of Ke Huy Quan (who at the time certainly had no idea that he would win an Oscar less than forty years later) and the overall atmosphere of the film, whose plot revolves around audience-friendly occultism and has a truly eerie feel in places. Some of the scenes were laughable, but they didn't hit me as hard as the first one. I have a fairly neutral attitude towards the much-maligned Kate Capshaw and her character Willie, though her sobbing jungle scene tickled my diaphragm beyond measure. A fair four stars! (07/01/2023)

Clearly the weakest of the Indiana Jones movies. The horror atmosphere occasionally grabs you, but for Mr. Archaeologist, it's desperately lacking. It needs more boat flying or wheelchair riding. This way, everything starts off very promisingly and it only pauses for about an hour before the classic final spectacle. (04/30/2006)

When I recently watched this Indy adventure again after a long time, I felt it was even better than in my enthusiastic teenage years. The story may not be as cool as Raiders of the Lost Ark or The Last Crusade, but in its individual parts Spielberg proves his storytelling greatness and is brimming with ideas that elevate this instalment to the honourable level of the two other entries in the trilogy. The low-key communicativeness towards the viewer, who is cunningly warned of the approaching action, the twists of seemingly insignificant plots, the playful work with lighting or multi-genre references, the likeable humour and the thrilling action of the last half hour make this one of the purest and funniest adventure films ever made in Hollywood… (01/31/2012)

Five stars again. But an absolutely (and I mean ABSOLUTELY) different five than I awarded to Raiders or The Last Crusade. I’m not really surprised that Spielberg doesn’t like The Temple as much as the others in the series. That may be another reason why part two doesn’t have the magic of part one or part three. But the main problem is in the screenplay. There’s so much action that there is no room for tension build-up. Although the movie itself is a level below The Crusade or Raiders, but these two deserve more like a full six stars. But it lacks proper villains, Capshaw lags behind Ford, the artefact isn’t really all that interesting and mainly we get too much of a big action ride without some of the props we are used to seeing Jones with. On the other hand, it’s funny (again), awesomely filmed (again), incredibly relaxing and mainly there’s Ford. He would give a great performance as Indy even in a seven-hour shot of him drinking hooch out of a paper bag with the bums down at Central Station. So he’s wonderful in a movie where he is well-fed at a very special dinner and where he careers off down a mine in a little wagon in one of the now most famous scenes of the silver screen, rounding it all off with a stroll across a rope bridge. And I absolutely adore the nods back to his previous adventures (Honduras, Madagascar etc.). And also of course the unavoidable fact that the final passage from Indy going over to the dark side is simply perfect entertainment. As a kid (and the movie is approached to a significant extent from Short Round’s perspective and not from an “adult perspective like the others in the series) I used to play the closing forty minutes like taking a rollercoaster ride. And um... I still do, from time to time. (05/17/2008)