Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: The InfoDroid Edit

I loved TEMPLE OF DOOM as much as the other Indiana Jones movies growing up, but now as an adult, the flaws in it have become more apparent. The massive amounts of blood and gore seem more appropriate for an R-rated horror movie, while Short Round goes too far the opposite direction tonally, seeming like something out of a kids' movie. And don't even get me started on Willie Scott.

Infodroid has created an edit that mercifully removes much of the most embarrassing moments from the film. However, he leaves in some moments that are just as annoying as the ones he took out. And he cut some scenes that I really liked. It's not a matter of him doing it wrong so much as my taste differs from his on those points.

Some people disagreed with Infodroid on removing some of the gore from this movie. I wholeheartedly support it. I think that the Indiana Jones movies should be able to enjoyed by kids at least 10 years old and up, since that's the age I was (when I watched the TV versions), and this cut makes the film more in line tonally with the other Indy films.

This isn't a definitive version for me, but if you've watched TEMPLE OF DOOM a number of times, you owe it to yourself to see this alternate version.

August 10, 2008

In my opinion this aggressive edit is precisely what “Temple of Doom” required. The cuts were well executed and if I weren’t so familiar with the original disaster I wouldn’t have missed any of it.

My one complaint comes at the end fight on the severed bridge where there is a microsecond of Indy grasping at his heart for no apparent reason. It makes very little sense with the earlier heart-ripping sequence cut.

I love the new Paramount Mountain transition. This is the edit I now consider official. Try this edit out! If you think it is too much try the less aggressive ADM cut.

June 21, 2008

Overall I thought it was really good, and I liked most of the edits.

VIDEO QUALITY: Video was very nice. crisp, no issues with any of the cuts. Easy 5 out of 5

AUDIO QUALITY: Overall it was pretty good. There were a few instances where it seemed like the levels were off. Once instance the dialog was extremely quiet. This only lasted briefly. There were a couple of other times that seemed exceedingly loud. Other than that it was good. there was a minor sync issue also that started about halfway through the film, but it was not really distracting. i noticed no cuts at all, and it all flowed very nicely. 4 out of 5

EDITING / STORYTELLING: I really liked most of the cuts. The intro was pretty cool to set the tone, however it was a little strange when it flipped back to the previous day. it just seemed a bit odd and didnt quite sit right with me. Perhaps if there was a longer pause before we go back to the previous day. I think the trimming of short round was just about right. I do like his character a lot, although he can be a bit much at times. Good trims. Same goes for Willy. very good trims. IMHO, I felt like the dinner scene was trimmed a bit too much. Not necessarily because I missed these scenes, but there seems to now be a bit of a continuity issue when Indy brings Willy the plate of fruit. Why is she so ravished? we dont know why exactly. Maybe that should have been trimmed a bit more if the dinner scene was trimmed so heavily. Another thing I missed was the thugee victom getting his heart ripped out. IMO, it really adds to the evil feel of the thugees. This is just my preference though. The edit worked fine without it, I just like it in there. I dont want to stress on these things too much. Almost all of the editing choices I thought were fantastic, and this was highly enjoyable. I recommend it to fans of the series. 4 out of 5 for me

DVD PRESENTATION: I LOVE the main menu!!! really cool. nice layout and video. The chapter menus had a bit to be desired. There were just so many chapters on the 2 pages that it was hard to really tell which chapter you were choosing. Fewer with numbers or titles would have been an improvement, but still good overall DVD. 4 out of 5.

So to sum it all up, this is a 4 of 5 for me, and close to a 5! If you like Indiana Jones, grab this edit!!

*Minor Spoilers!*

Indy's back! Temple of Doom was always the weakest of the Indy films for me. (Yes even more than Indy 4) The Indian cult is even more outside of Indy territory than aliens (again, IMO). But this edit brings a sense of realism and grit to them while keeping the terror without showing a guy's heart get ripped out of his chest. The new beginning brings the film in line with the rest of the Indy movies and while I may not have liked going back and reusing almost all of the footage in and around Club Obi Wan and the plane crash, the more I thought about it there was no other way.