Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom: Willie Scott Edition

I like Temple of Doom. For a long time it was my favorite Indiana Jones film. Today, it would probably be The Last Crusade. I don't really bother ranking them as they are all great. However, there's no denying - Willie Scott was annoying and very forgettable female sidekick. By making those little, yet so effective, trims to her character the movie improves ten fold.

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.

I loved this edit very much. It reminded me what I love most about this website - fanfixes that redeem the original film and actually improve it.
Temple of Doom was always my least favourite Indiana Jones film, perhaps competing with Crystal Skull. It had a few iconic scenes, true, but I never liked Kate Capshaw's incessant screaming and whining, and Short Round always felt redundant. But Lapis Molari's edit somehow redeemed the film for me. By toning down both characters, especially in scenes where they really should have fewer antics and shenanigans, Lapis strengthened them and also allowed the bond between SR and Indy to shine.
The visual and audio editing, as you can expect from Fanedit.org, are top notch.
Well done, Lapis Molari. This fan edit will definitely replace the original cut for me.

I've always loved Temple of Doom, even as the dark sheep of the original Indy Trilogy. Sure, Willie Scott (played by Kate Capshaw) was unbelievably irritating and added NOTHING at all to the movies, but it was still Harrison Ford in his prime as our favorite archaeologist-adventurer.

What Lapis set out to do would be nearly impossible without completely digitally removing Kate Capshaw, but in the end he did a fantastic job of toning down Willie's annoyingness. The edits are extremely clean and quick, and you really won't notice too much difference, though you will FEEL Willie is somewhat less screamy.

I thought the best changes were cutting Willie's dropping Indy's gun and complaining about cracking a nail (WHO CARES?! YOU'RE BEING CHASED BY PEOPLE TRYING TO KILL YOU!!), as well as completely cutting out all of her screaming at animals during the Indy/Short Round card game. In fact, the latter really does a good job of focusing on Indy and SR, letting you enjoy their relationship without being distracted by a poor joke/screaming Willie every 2 seconds. I also liked cutting Willie's 'I'm losing my voice' lines after falling off of the elephant, but I could have done with cutting her falling off too.

Ultimately, there is only so much that can be done with Temple of Doom. Spielberg himself said it was a troubled time for producer George Lucas and the two of them made a much darker film that intended. I don't have a problem with that. My issue is how horrible, annoying, and just plain arrogant the so called 'love interest' of Indy 2 was, and Lapis has done a great job of toning her down as much as possible. This fan edit as replaced the original cut in my library. Thanks Lapis!

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.