Exactly. I don’t agree with the article/hate of the movie, but it absolutely is the least liked of the original trilogy. This has been a long standing trope. The Guardian didn’t make anything up.
Comment on Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom at 40: Spielberg’s hit-and-miss relic
hOrni@lemmy.world 6 months agoBut are they wrong? I honestly hate this movie, and consider it the worst in the series.
fishos@lemmy.world 6 months ago
wjrii@lemmy.world 6 months ago
I don’t hate it, but I don’t go back to it either. Kate Capshaw really is obnoxious and exists largely to make Indy’s coded racism more palatable by comparison, and the character has aged particularly poorly as an audience stand-in. Short Round is a bundle of cliches, but at least Ke Huy Quan has undeniable charm. The violence is egregious too, partly because it’s less over the top than the face melting from RotLA.
Still, there are god set pieces, some nice moments like subverting the gun vs. sword scene from Raiders (though this being a prequel makes it more fun as an audience joke than as an insight for Indy), and it continues the theme that there is magic in the world that is tied to religious traditions. That last one is an overlooked part of what made the original three so great; anyone who is brought up in a religious home has basically been told since childhood that this shit can happen, and it grounds them in a way that “it was Aliens” or “Archimedes was Star Trek smart” simply can’t match. Indeed, from an overthinking perspective, Crystal Skull in particular sort of reframes the entire series and invites the question, “Was it ALL just aliens and shit?”
So, I have some fondness for ToD, but man… so much cringe too.