Joss Whedon Takes Issue With ‘Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom’

Joss Whedon doesn’t mince words. After voicing his problems with The Empire Strikes Back, the filmmaker is now setting his sights on Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

For a lot of people, Empire and Temple are important films. They either played a hand in defining their childhood or helped fuel the flames of cinematic obsession. While we often overlook the flubs and flaws in these films, Whedon isn’t afraid to call them out.

There’s an iconic scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) nonchalantly takes down a sword-wielding villain with a single shot from his pistol. It’s a great moment that wasn’t originally in the script.

The gag is revisited in Temple of Doom, a fact that apparently doesn’t settle well with Joss Whedon. During his conversation with Entertainment Weekly, the Serenity director admitted his distaste for this particular sequence.

“You know that thing in ‘Temple of Doom’ where they revisit the shooting trick? That’s what you don’t want. And I feel that’s what all of culture is becoming — it’s becoming that moment,” Whedon explained to the magazine.

Temple of Doom isn’t the only classic movie the filmmaker took to task in the recent Entertainment Weekly interview. Whedon also expressed his disappointment with how Empire Strikes Back wrapped things up.

“Well, it’s not an ending. It’s a Come Back Next Week, or in three years. And that upsets me. I go to movies expecting to have a whole experience,” he explained.

Whedon added, “If I want a movie that doesn’t end I’ll go to a French movie. That’s a betrayal of trust to me. A movie has to be complete within itself, it can’t just build off the first one or play variations.”

Are you a fan of Joss Whedon? What do you think about the director’s comments on Empire Strikes Back and Temple of Doom? Does he have a valid point?

[Image via Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com]