Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom: Willie Scott Edition

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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.

Like many others I think Temple of Doom is the worst of the original Indy movies. It's still a good movie but Willie Scott is a decent character at best and the movie is just so dark toned at times. Well this one didn't make the movie more cheerful but Willie got an improvement. I never really minded the outdated special effects but this one got rid of many as well which is nice.

I enjoyed this one quite a bit and Willie was a better character this time around. I don't think it's THE Temple of Doom edition for me but it's still a small improvement to already a good movie.

A few audio editing "glitches" slighty stood out but nothing major. Visual editing was good.

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!