The negatives first: Ford is teetering on the edge of being too old for an action hero (I hope he makes this his last Indy movie, or does the graceful thing and go out with a cameo in the next one); the plot begins as convoluted and ends as incoherent; Karen Allen doesn't have enough to do.
The positives: Lots of kick-ass action set pieces--one of them, the jeep chase through the jungle, might be even more fun than the truck chase in Raiders; the tributes to Sean Connery and the late Denholm Elliott; Jim Broadbent makes a good successor to Elliott; a typically strong opening sequence; the sci-fi elements scattered throughout; I started out not liking Shia LeBeouf (he can't carry off the Brando drag early in the film) but he grew on me--he's not really cute, but he looks good in a t-shirt. I won't give away any of the plot details--actually, the details are fun, but the overarching storyline really needed some more work. I would say ignore the critics who wanted this to be the be-all and end-all of adventure films; it's just the fourth Indiana Jones movie, but that's all it needs to be, and if you approach it that way, you'll have a good time.
2 comments:
Oh, Michael. I can see admitting that you like the Indiana Jones movies, fine. But saying that you like TEMPLE OF DOOM the best of them all, or even that you like it at all? Dear God. TEMPLE OF DOOM was the movie that began the HATE part of my relationship to Spielberg's films. I loathed it so completely that I can't even type the words TEMPLE OF DOOM without sneering.
The first one is mostly amusing, LAST CRUSADE has some winning moments, usually involving Connery referring to Ford as "Junior." But TEMPLE OF DOOM -- Horrors. I remember actively praying for Short Round to meet a painful and prolonged death. And that horrific scene at the end where Indy restores the kiddies to their families is just the first of many Spielberg "WTF?" endings.
To each their own. My own love/hate feelings about Spielberg started with E.T.; I hated the obvious manipulation but still cried when the kids flew on their bikes (but I gritted my teeth through most of the last 20 minutes). I loathed AI; truly a crap-covered piece of toilet paper of a movie. But, darn it, I liked TEMPLE, and I enjoyed SKULL, though whether it will hold up to repeat viewings is another story.
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