A stepdown from Raiders, but in the same way that Dead Man's Chest is a stepdown from Black Pearl. A lot messier this time around. Not necessarily the best idea to have Indy's sidekicks be a loud child and a loud woman (neither of which are the performer's fault, Willie Scott is a poorly written character, and Short Round can be too enthusiastic, if one were toned down, the other could be ingested more efficiently for the audience). It's an even sloppier idea to depict the culture of India in the manner that this movie does. It's cool to hire local folk to play the village residents, but these depictions can be outright ludicrous. The dinner scene is the worst offender, or maybe the dungeon sequences...perhaps it's both of them. But this movie is still fun with these problems intact because of how good these setpieces are. Spielberg and Verbinski used their second entries to input some of the most intricate and raucous action sequences. Diving out of an airplane via an inflatable boat is the same sort of deal as a swordfight in the inner workings of a massive wooden wheel. Undeniably offensive, and even a tad annoying, but once we start riding the minecarts, I can't help but go WHEEEEEEEEE!