🏳🌈🖤Cami🖤🏳🌈’s review published on Letterboxd:
It wasn't until this rewatch that it fully dawned on me how different and weird Temple of Doom is in the Indiana Jones franchise. But I still love it!
There's so much stuff that's different; it's a prequel, the tone feels much darker and more ominous that any of the other Indy films, Indy has a child sidekick that is super close to him but is never seen or mentioned again, a fish out water female main character that we also never see again (although given her story in the movie, her absence in Indy's other adventures makes more sense), the story takes place mostly in one location instead of all over the world, and Indy is not trying to stop an evil regime from finding a magical artifact, but trying to help a village full of starving people, who had their children kidnapped by a fictional cult. And they don't even mean to at first, they just stumble upon the place, like a Scooby-Doo episode lmao
I kind of like this movie for that tho; it tries something different, and it worked for me. I love creepy castles and everything related to the occult, so the story and the setting were a win for me, Indy and Short Round are hilarious and adorable together, Willie was annoying but the movie poked fun at her at every single possible moment (Steven Spielberg does that a lot with douchey characters and I love it), the action was brutal and the special effects are gnarly, and everything involving the mines, and the standoff in the bridge, was epic!
Incredibly annoying and stereotypical female character aside, Temple of Doom was lots of fun! It was funny, Indy and Short Round were super charming, I liked how different and fast paced the story was, the villain was super sinister, the setting was creepy, the action was really fun and the score by John Williams is epic! I've been having a blast with this movie my whole life! Indy adventures never get old for me. :)
