Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom: Willie Scott Edition

I always thought TOD was the weakest Indy movie.

I considered this to be true even after Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was released. Crystal Skull suffered from a lot of issues that affect modern cinema, but TOD was always bad. Different kinds of bads.

NJVC fixed Crystal Skull, changing the movie into something I can easily enjoy, Raiders of the Lost Skull.

TOD was something I never found really fixed...until now. I thought it was a pity, since it had some inspiring moments, and a young Indiana Jones, in a different, dark adventure.

I always thought it was because of including the kids in the story and the difficulty to film something realistic with so many kids... I thought that there was something not letting things work there.

But then I saw this release and watched it. What a big surprise. How Willie Scott was protrayed in the movie was the main lackluster... fixing Willie revives the film in so many ways!
Pace is better, character development and depth feels better, the story feels more real and natural....
This edit has left me with "my" go-to version of TOD. At last a version I can easily rewatch!

lapis did it for me. A version of the movie I can enjoy, despite its flaws (in the original movie).

This could be somehow considered a "feminist" edit, in the best meaning of the word possible and I cannot do anything else but strongly recommend its viewing.

This edit was done really well, and it made me like Temple of Doom a lot more than I did before. The changes were done so well that I could barely tell what was cut unless I remembered it from the original film. I would gladly show this edit over the theatrical version to someone who has never seen the movie before.

I'm not a fan of TOD, though I was when I was a kid as it was the first one I saw in the cinema. I prefer the other 2 or 3 nowadays depending on the cut. But here you do have Indy in his prime, the lighting, cinematography, music, stop motion FX and set pieces that are fantastic viewing in isolation to the whole. But Willie Scott is simply the dip shit incarnation of superficial hypergamy. So although this franchise is pretty schlocky, her character is just an exasperating presence that always has me wanting turn the bloody thing off. Not blaming Capshaw necessarily as those putting her in there to begin with were deluded.

That said, Lapis has improved the effect of Scott's interference in the film to quite some degree, especially with Indy and Short Round's friendship and the card game scene that others here have rightly commended. "Hey lady, you call him Dr Jones" - Short Round always did have her number.

I'm not sure some of the grotesque or icky visuals taken out wouldn't have justified their inclusion in spite of annoying Scott reaction shots, because at least there were revolting contexts to tolerate her for. Plus some of the dodgy FX could have survived as some optical composites you can forgive or have them tarted up a little, as it did feel like watching a censored TV broadcast at times. The inflatable raft sequence trims and Roller-coal-cart trims really did smooth things out very nicely. The back end of the film played out very well indeed and I'm sure there were other less explicit edits that benefit the flow along the way.

Scott will never be a strong female character, but this is the best you'll get from her.

I have been meaning to check this edit out for a while and finally got around to it. I think this second installment is often overly maligned. Yes, the love interest and sidekick can be annoying. Yes, some of effects are wonky by today's standards. But I like the idea of it more than Last Crusade, which I felt was more of a retread. I think an occult cult is a good bad guy for an Indiana Jones story. And I like the setpieces in this one better than Crusade. That said, Willie Scott was always an annoying character. This edit does a good job of minimizing that. But she still comes off as someone you struggle to see what Jones sees in her other than looks. Another misstep in this entry was thinking that kids needed an avatar of themselves to relate to. Short Round is not a good character and it has become worse with time. I wouldn't mind seeing Temple of Doom: the Willie Scott and Short Round Edition that gives the same treatment to Short Round that this edit gave to Willie Scott. I had to watch this by using Screen Mirroring to my Apple TV. So while there were some glitches in my viewing experience, I am almost certain that was due to the Mirroring so I'm not taking off nay points there. As someone who doesn't hate Doom as much as many others, I thought this was a good improvement. But I'd still like it to have gone further, particularly with regards to Short Round.

Nice work.
After some minutes in, there are some subtly noticeable transitions but nothing remotely jarring.
AV quality is excellent and favors some gorgeous shots and setpieces.
I'm only deducting more on enjoyment because of the movie itself. I can't believe Willie could ever be more annoying than this.
Or that the whole film is pure slapstick (I hope that is the case anyway, there's no other excuse for Indy punching a clueless waitress in the face).
But I'm mostly grateful and impressed by the subtitles. It makes a world of difference for me as a non-native speaker, and seeing that it's not a common sight with fanedits, I want to praise this extra mile of lapis molari's editing standards.
By all means, a definitive improvement over the original.