Went and saw it, first time in a theater since COVID hit. I enjoyed it well enough, though Indy getting knocked out 2000 years ago and waking up in his apartment in New York was a bit much. And if the filmmakers had to choose between Mutt or Marian being dead, they went with the right one.
The Mansion of EFinally caught the film on streaming, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it, up until they leave america it's absolutely solid, it does get a bit aimless in the second act, but then once they get to Sicily and start exploring a tomb it because a stand up film again.
Indi getting overcome and starry eyed at the end was so good, I cried a little at that, and yet it was also satisfying to have his quiet happiness at the end contrast that.
Some really good action scenes with great Indi slapstick; the noose sequence was really short but damn I liked it and then it went straight into the great train sequence.
Proba Lt too many chase sequences, but I guess that comes from the limitation of what action scenes you can do with a 70 year old Indiana Jones, he can still drive. I still enjoyed the one during the parade, though the one in Morocco could have been cut entirely for my liking.
I still have not seen this movie and sadly have no interest. The idea of this movie just doesn’t break my cynical heart sadly. I consider Last Crusade the perfect ending and anything after that story just feels unnecessary.
I can’t say I find this premise for a story all that satisfying. But who knows. I’ll check it out at some point.
I discover my own destiny as I command the winds of life!Willie is the only part of Temple of Doom I dislike. She's so grating, especially after Marion. But I don't mind anything else in the film.
May I say I find Last Crusade kind of... underwhelming? It IS objectively better than Temple of Doom, it has perhaps the most hilarious moment in the saga (the cameo of Hitler), and the interplay between Connery and Ford is golden, but I feel it's lacking something, perhaps because the female lead and the villain just don't hit that big...
Please remember that, ultimately, fictional works of entertainment are just that.Temple of Doom is a guilty pleasure for me. I love this movie even as I know it's probably the worst of the trilogy. It's ballsiness is kind of impressive with the villain ripping a dude's heart out, that hilarious dinner sequence, the mine cart sequence and other stuff I just vibe with.
Definitely an acquired taste and I get why some dislike it.
For me, the best is Last Crusade.
I discover my own destiny as I command the winds of life!A lot of Temple of Doom age poorly certainly. For many, it might be the Home Alone 2 or Batman Forever of the series though: not the same level as the prior film and yet saw it so many times when they were younger that they adored it then and still have those feelings even now too.
Edited by futuremoviewriter on Dec 23rd 2023 at 7:25:23 AM
The one thing about Temple of Doom where Your Mileage May Vary is that it's a unique type of movie that feels more uncommon nowadays.
Part of the reason I love Last Crusade so much is that it's where Indiana Jones really transforms from anti hero to hero in my eyes. In fact, I think that Indiana Jones who is reviled for not having a "character arc" actually does have a character arc across the first three movies.
He starts off selfish and obsessed with fortune and glory and gradually comes to accept that there are higher powers in his universe. He gains faith, if that makes sense.
This article goes into greater detail. See here.
I totally agree. Given Raiders had him advance to being more interested in getting away with Marion in the end rather than getting the Ark—to the point that he was willing to destroy it too—showed that while he was a treasure hunter with an axe to grind, he still was willing to sacrifice his prize for the woman he loved.
Even then I do love that he was also persuaded to see what the Ark was capable of when Belloq pushed him. He even calls Indy’s bluff that he won’t really destroy the Ark, even telling him to do it.
And I love how the Nazis were all like “The fuck are you doing” meanwhile Belloq’s like “Back off, man, I know this guy!”
I discover my own destiny as I command the winds of life!I realize that it's like comparing apples and oranges, but have you ever considered how Do D stacks up against the computer game "Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis"? In my opinion, the film's writers could have learned a few things from Fo A - most especially how to create a semi-plausible pulp artifact to go looking for. I acknowledge that the game makers had the advantage of not needing to work with actual actors, of course, so the passage of time meant nothing.
Translating Fate of Atlantis into a later time period would have been pretty easy—fugitive ex-Nazis searching for Atlantis to revive the Third Reich or something, instead of contemporary WWII ones.
Or just make them Soviets instead like Crystal Skull did, would make certain setpieces like the submarine easier to explain.

Yeah COVID drove the budgets of a bunch of movies way up which sucks. I've heard that theater attendance has gone down in the last few years which also doesn't help.