Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Just before his quest for the lost Ark, Indy narrowly escaped a melee in China with an evil crimelord with his new friends a ditzy nightclub singer and a young Chinese boy. They then narrowly escape the crimelord's plane which they've mistakenly boarded and has been set to crash. Surfacing in India, they come across a local village which has been stricken with disease which they claim is due to a Satanic cult stealing their sacred rock and their children. Now, Indy and crew embark on a deadly mission to retrieve the rock and kids and restore prosperity to the village. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a downright laughable sequel, containing none of the wit or sense of adventure from Raiders of the Lost Ark. The story is uninspired, the jokes are terrible, and Kate Capshaw and the little Chinese boy are cringe inducingly terrible. This would have been a complete loss if not for a spectacular mine chase sequence followed by a remarkable rope bridge segment, comprising the last twenty minutes of the film. But when only one sixth of a movie is great, how can you recommend it. This Indiana Jones installment is a colossal failure much worse than the recent Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls entry, and the blame should not only fall on Steven Spielberg, but also equally on George Lucas who wrote this lackluster story.