A good action fiction, but the other movies are better.
Added 10/10/2009
First, this is a good action flick for when you are bored. It has all the basics any would find in the adventure genre.
Unfortunately, some of the first "1" score reviews reflected some of my concerns. I would suggest approaching this movie as a fiction and based on an individual group of villains, as opposed to the entirety of the worship populace of their goddess. Not only is the depiction of Shiva being a God of Light figure and Kali being a demonic goddess inaccurate to the views of their religion, people still have this tendency to believe these stories reflect the culture. Consequently, I warn against this. When I watched the movie, the Thugee controversy was the least of concern when I saw what people were having for dinner in the film. In some ways I actually cannot blame people for thinking it negatively portrayed South Asians.
That aside, I had other critiques. The female lead, while played well, was not my ideal character. I also thought Lucas could have written a better movie if he actually made it like he did with Star Wars (which redeemed him in the end, as far as I am concerned). The story would have been better if it was deliberately portrayed as being based off a myth made by him and inspired by Hinduism, as opposed to have been based off what was already established (albeit with the addendum of negative colonial propaganda and orientalism). Not only would this remove some cultural representation (or misrepresentation) concerns, but it would emphasize his strengths.
If one can take this as what it is - a fiction - and try not to judge South Asians based on this film, I say this is a good film to watch for what it is. I personally preferred the other Indiana Jones movies for what they had to offer as far as content goes. I just would not would not call every German a racist Nazi (who even they had their heroes who opposed the inhumane ones).
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If things were that simple!!!
Added 9/15/2009
In this film, as compared to the previous one, we progress backward from 1936 to 1935. We move across the universe from Egypt to China and India. The team is reinforced with a nice little but strong Chinese boy. The film is absolutely packed with suspense and action, and yet the film is also packed with all kinds of interesting questions though it does not provide us with all the answers, far from it. At the beginning we have the Chinese mafia of this time but the film forgets to explain that this Chinese mafia is the result of the Opium war or wars, of the control of China by the English and other western countries, and that this mafia will be quite happy with the Japanese some years later. This quite one-sided vision seems to support the idea that in China the mafia controls everything, the police, the bars, drugs and opium, the government, you name it you have it. Then in India that poor Indiana discovers and dismantles a terroristic and fascist small potentate that imposes an extreme vision of Hinduism based on human sacrifice (God knows Spielberg makes us shiver in front of this horror), the legend of five miraculous stones that would give the Indians their power back against the English, the colonizing power, and these believers have to exploit children in mines in the worst possible way and with the most unimaginable violence (God knows Spielberg insists on the inhumanity of this crime against civilization). But this seems to imply that this Hinduism is producing that kind of sectarian and dictatorial vision and action. These people must be barbarians and that is purely racist somewhere (it is true Bush will come later with his war on terror that is implying the same thing about another religion), whereas the enlightened Americans are bringing freedom (God it is so true in Iraq and Afghanistan). These people eat insects, spiders and the fresh brain of monkeys, snakes and all kinds of nice juicy animals of that type. But the worst part is the role and function of the English in all that. Their representative is sharing these beautiful banquets with the local maharaja who is a child. Then they come nearly at the end to save the day that is mostly saved anyway, and they don't even use their guns because they use Indian soldiers to do the shooting. What's more these English-loving Indian soldiers have blue turbans, whereas the barbaric slave owners and exploiters have mainly red uniforms and turbans. These red and blue are not gratuitous. But no answer again and we cannot say that the worst violence and the worst massacres in India were done by turbaned Hindu extremists but rather by the very British colonizers. This film purports for the people who don't know history, which means the majority of the audience, that the evil of this world is not the colonizing western powers but extremist Hindus and Chinese Mafiosi. That is at least an extreme lie and an unacceptable disguise, not for truth that does not exist on such subjects, but for the slightest possible objectivity. Entertaining cannot mean conveying racist and western-centered prejudices. I am sure that Spielberg can do better and has done better than that.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID
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Bats and Bugs and Chilled Monkey Brians, Oh My!
Added 8/29/2009
Although Temple of Doom is the least popular Indy film amongst fans and critics alike (even Steven Spielberg himself), it is my favorite of the bunch! I love it for the fact that it is more dark and serious however it is not without its humorous moments as well. People who do not like this seem to think that it isn't as "fun" as Raiders or Last Crusade. One of my gripes is how fans will say that these films keep doing the same thing but when something different is tried like with Temple, they complain even more. I appreciate that this one stands out for its seperate tone and style. This isn't and should not be Raiders of the Lost Ark 2. Incidentally, I am also a fan of Alien 3 (even though others were wanting Aliens 2). People in India complained this film was being racist and one movie critic even said it was a cinematic form of child abuse. First, movies are just that. Movies. This is entertainment. It's not trying to depict a group for being a certain way and it's not trying to prove anything. Fans do not seem to like Kate Capshaw as the prima donna princess Willie Scott either. I actually love the character and think it is highly amusing watching a goody two shoes type being put through these crazy situations againgst her will. However people were probably expecting a Marion Ravenwood type like in Raiders which would basically be rehashing what's already been done. Jonathan Ke Quan is also great as Indy's sidekick Short Round. With the three of them together, it almost has a family vibe to it. There are so many awesome sequences in this. The beginning fight at the nightclub followed by a car chase, the airplane fiasco in the Himalayas which turns into an inflatable boat ride down raging rivers, venturing thru the forest to Pankot Palace, the dinner table meal which consists of snakes, spiders and eyeball soup, the underground lair to the Temple of Doom itself, the fire pit ritual, the mine cart race with the Thuggees and the finale on the rope bridge over crocodile infested waters. There is plenty of action and adventure to be had with this one. Rather than Indiana Jones going after an important biblical artifact, here he is trying to recover the ancient Sankara Stones stolen from a poor Indian village along with their young children. I felt the story here with Indiana Jones helping the poor villagers and rescuing their abused, kidnapped children had a more meaningful tone to it which I respected. The ending when they return is very happy so it ends on a good note. Temple of Doom also has a nostalgic value to it for being one of the films to garner a PG13 rating system. All in all this is a terrific, exciting, movie-going experience. Is is darker? Yes. Is it more serious? Yes. But when did that become such a bad thing?
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Indy in India...
Added 6/21/2009
"Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom", the second of the Indiana Jones series, is a prequel to the first and third movies. It opens in a nightclub in 1935 China, where Indy attempts to swap precious artifacts with a Chinese gangster. The swap goes badly, dissolving into a chaotic scramble around the nightclub and a car chase in the streets. Its principal purpose is to reintroduce action hero archeologist Profesor Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) and to introduce his co-stars, beautiful nightclub singer Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw) and Indy's young side-kick Short Round (Ke Huy Quan). The sequence ends with Indy and his companions escaping by plane, unaware they are about to be involuntarily dumped in India.
Having survived their hair-raising arrival in India, Indy and his friends find refuge in a small village, where the locals have been robbed of a set of magical stones and of their children. Indy takes on the mission of recovering the stones, accompanied by Short Round and a reluctant Willie. Their mission takes them to a grand palace and a close and nearly fatal encounter with the ancient and murderous Thugee Cult.
"Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" is filled with the thrilling escape sequences, nasty villains, creepy crawlies, booby-trapped rooms and sometimes humorous heroism that audiences came to expect from the series. Unfortunately, it may be the least loved of the original trilogy. The clear-cut struggle with the Nazis is swapped for a dark and rather muddled plot featuring a mysterious cult, enslaved children, and magic stones. For most of the movie, the whiny Willie Scott displays an alarming lack of the fortitude expected of Indy heroines. The ending, back in the small Indian village, is a little flat since we already know Indy and Willie have no future together.
"Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" is highly recommended to fans of the Indiana Jones series. Despite some shortcomings, it is a worthy and entertaining companion to "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "The Last Crusade."
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Easily the Best
Added 6/7/2009
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is one of those movies that didn't do so well critically when it first came out, though was appreciated more and more over the years. Sort of like Scarface. I found this one to be the most interesting because it dealt with a place that many do not know about. I feel that the other two use Nazi cliches and not that this one doesn't have Voodoo Indian cliches, but we've seen Nazi's so much in movies that its a bore. Also, this one is funny with the short round character and the girl. The action scenes are better than the first and a persons heart being pulled out is much cooler than someone's face melting. This one doesn't change setting every two seconds which makes it more interesting. Anyway, I enjoyed this movie the most out of the three, I hope you enjoy it as well.
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A good action fiction, but the other movies are better.
Added 10/10/2009
First, this is a good action flick for when you are bored. It has all the basics any would find in the adventure genre.
Unfortunately, some of the first "1" score reviews reflected some of my concerns. I would suggest approaching this movie as a fiction and based on an individual group of villains, as opposed to the entirety of the worship populace of their goddess. Not only is the depiction of Shiva being a God of Light figure and Kali being a demonic goddess inaccurate to the views of their religion, people still have this tendency to believe these stories reflect the culture. Consequently, I warn against this. When I watched the movie, the Thugee controversy was the least of concern when I saw what people were having for dinner in the film. In some ways I actually cannot blame people for thinking it negatively portrayed South Asians.
That aside, I had other critiques. The female lead, while played well, was not my ideal character. I also thought Lucas could have written a better movie if he actually made it like he did with Star Wars (which redeemed him in the end, as far as I am concerned). The story would have been better if it was deliberately portrayed as being based off a myth made by him and inspired by Hinduism, as opposed to have been based off what was already established (albeit with the addendum of negative colonial propaganda and orientalism). Not only would this remove some cultural representation (or misrepresentation) concerns, but it would emphasize his strengths.
If one can take this as what it is - a fiction - and try not to judge South Asians based on this film, I say this is a good film to watch for what it is. I personally preferred the other Indiana Jones movies for what they had to offer as far as content goes. I just would not would not call every German a racist Nazi (who even they had their heroes who opposed the inhumane ones).
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
If things were that simple!!!
Added 9/15/2009
In this film, as compared to the previous one, we progress backward from 1936 to 1935. We move across the universe from Egypt to China and India. The team is reinforced with a nice little but strong Chinese boy. The film is absolutely packed with suspense and action, and yet the film is also packed with all kinds of interesting questions though it does not provide us with all the answers, far from it. At the beginning we have the Chinese mafia of this time but the film forgets to explain that this Chinese mafia is the result of the Opium war or wars, of the control of China by the English and other western countries, and that this mafia will be quite happy with the Japanese some years later. This quite one-sided vision seems to support the idea that in China the mafia controls everything, the police, the bars, drugs and opium, the government, you name it you have it. Then in India that poor Indiana discovers and dismantles a terroristic and fascist small potentate that imposes an extreme vision of Hinduism based on human sacrifice (God knows Spielberg makes us shiver in front of this horror), the legend of five miraculous stones that would give the Indians their power back against the English, the colonizing power, and these believers have to exploit children in mines in the worst possible way and with the most unimaginable violence (God knows Spielberg insists on the inhumanity of this crime against civilization). But this seems to imply that this Hinduism is producing that kind of sectarian and dictatorial vision and action. These people must be barbarians and that is purely racist somewhere (it is true Bush will come later with his war on terror that is implying the same thing about another religion), whereas the enlightened Americans are bringing freedom (God it is so true in Iraq and Afghanistan). These people eat insects, spiders and the fresh brain of monkeys, snakes and all kinds of nice juicy animals of that type. But the worst part is the role and function of the English in all that. Their representative is sharing these beautiful banquets with the local maharaja who is a child. Then they come nearly at the end to save the day that is mostly saved anyway, and they don't even use their guns because they use Indian soldiers to do the shooting. What's more these English-loving Indian soldiers have blue turbans, whereas the barbaric slave owners and exploiters have mainly red uniforms and turbans. These red and blue are not gratuitous. But no answer again and we cannot say that the worst violence and the worst massacres in India were done by turbaned Hindu extremists but rather by the very British colonizers. This film purports for the people who don't know history, which means the majority of the audience, that the evil of this world is not the colonizing western powers but extremist Hindus and Chinese Mafiosi. That is at least an extreme lie and an unacceptable disguise, not for truth that does not exist on such subjects, but for the slightest possible objectivity. Entertaining cannot mean conveying racist and western-centered prejudices. I am sure that Spielberg can do better and has done better than that.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Bats and Bugs and Chilled Monkey Brians, Oh My!
Added 8/29/2009
Although Temple of Doom is the least popular Indy film amongst fans and critics alike (even Steven Spielberg himself), it is my favorite of the bunch! I love it for the fact that it is more dark and serious however it is not without its humorous moments as well. People who do not like this seem to think that it isn't as "fun" as Raiders or Last Crusade. One of my gripes is how fans will say that these films keep doing the same thing but when something different is tried like with Temple, they complain even more. I appreciate that this one stands out for its seperate tone and style. This isn't and should not be Raiders of the Lost Ark 2. Incidentally, I am also a fan of Alien 3 (even though others were wanting Aliens 2). People in India complained this film was being racist and one movie critic even said it was a cinematic form of child abuse. First, movies are just that. Movies. This is entertainment. It's not trying to depict a group for being a certain way and it's not trying to prove anything. Fans do not seem to like Kate Capshaw as the prima donna princess Willie Scott either. I actually love the character and think it is highly amusing watching a goody two shoes type being put through these crazy situations againgst her will. However people were probably expecting a Marion Ravenwood type like in Raiders which would basically be rehashing what's already been done. Jonathan Ke Quan is also great as Indy's sidekick Short Round. With the three of them together, it almost has a family vibe to it. There are so many awesome sequences in this. The beginning fight at the nightclub followed by a car chase, the airplane fiasco in the Himalayas which turns into an inflatable boat ride down raging rivers, venturing thru the forest to Pankot Palace, the dinner table meal which consists of snakes, spiders and eyeball soup, the underground lair to the Temple of Doom itself, the fire pit ritual, the mine cart race with the Thuggees and the finale on the rope bridge over crocodile infested waters. There is plenty of action and adventure to be had with this one. Rather than Indiana Jones going after an important biblical artifact, here he is trying to recover the ancient Sankara Stones stolen from a poor Indian village along with their young children. I felt the story here with Indiana Jones helping the poor villagers and rescuing their abused, kidnapped children had a more meaningful tone to it which I respected. The ending when they return is very happy so it ends on a good note. Temple of Doom also has a nostalgic value to it for being one of the films to garner a PG13 rating system. All in all this is a terrific, exciting, movie-going experience. Is is darker? Yes. Is it more serious? Yes. But when did that become such a bad thing?
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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