Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom (1984) Review

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)

Temple of Doom follows Indiana Jones, who, after a botched escape from Shanghai, crash lands in India with his young sidekick and a nightclub singer, where he is asked to retrieve the lost Sankara stone from the evil Mola Ram.

 Admittedly, in most watches of the Indy ‘trilogy’, I skip Temple of Doom because out of all of them, it’s not only the most different but it’s just an extremely dark, almost macabre, film, even pioneering the PG-13 rating after Spielberg deemed it too adult for the usual PG rating. Whereas Raiders had more of a Biblical significance, which definitely gives credence to a certain atmosphere, this goes the rout of more Indian gods like Shiva, basing it’s story and villains on real, but much less relevant or known aspects compared to the Nazis. 

In all respects though, despite its harrowingly grim events, Temple of Doom is a solid sequel/prequel, taking place in 1935 and with it, replacing Marion for Willie, who just comes nowhere close and quite frankly is the only reason the movie isn’t more watchable. Her incessant whining and damsel-y attitude really bogs down 90% of the movie and while it’s played off for laughs most of the time, she’s simply not a good fit for Indy. That said, we really get some of the scariest villains of the series in Mola Ram and the Thuggee Cult, who terrify in ripping out hearts, melting people alive, and brainwashing kids into being slaves in search for the missing stones. They push Indiana to his very limits, making for another crazy, action packed adventure that takes true inspiration from it’s setting in terms of horror. 

We get a pretty fair cast as well, starring Raj Singh, Roy Chiao, D.R. Nanayakkara, Roshen Seth, Pat Roach, Amrish Puri, Ke Huy Quan, Kate Capshaw, and Harrison Ford. While Capshaw is about as annoying as it gets, Ford luckily delivers an incredibly physical and intense performance that pairs oddly well on a comedic level with Quan, who is a ton of fun as Short Round. 

Temple of Doom, directed by Steven Spielberg, is a significantly darker sequel, that while not necessarily upping the stakes in terms of treasure, certainly ups the danger, putting Indy in serious peril in this gripping adventure that sees him go from archeologist to freedom fighter.

8.1/10