When Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade came out it became fashionable to knock this sequel and the film's reputation never recovered - in part because Spielberg slags it off too. It's certainly darker than other films in the series (Spielberg and Lucas were getting divorced around this time)... but that darkness makes it interesting. And yes it's racist though not really more than the first one (although this does surprisingly extol the virtues of British rule in India... I kept expecting a baddie white guy along with all the bad Indians but nope... all the baddies are coloured.)
It's perhaps the best looking of all the movies because it's set in India (though was shot in Sri Lanka) - the colour and locales are gorgeous. The pace is it is terrific - it's full throttle almost the entire way, and features some of the most memorable set pieces in the whole series: Kate Capshaw singing 'Anything Goes' in Chinese in a big dance number (Spielberg does Busby Berkley, and very well), the spectacular battle in the Shanghai nightclub, the raft sliding down the mountain (when it went over the cliff was too over the top), the thugee death ceremony, the brilliant chase on the mine train, and final battle on the bridge.
Kate Capshaw's whingeing nightclub singer came in for a lot of criticism but I liked her - she was lively and wisecracking and always had clear goals (to get laid, get money, get out of trouble and into luxury). Maybe there was one too many screaming sequences, but, like I said, the two main filmmakers were going through women troubles at the time.
(On that note it was also interesting that the chief villain is someone who literally rips out people's hearts and steals children from their parents... and puts Indy under their sway via magic potion until he wakes up and shakes free... and the suited Oxford Prime Minister front man, i.e. the "wife's lawyer" stand in, turns out to be a psychotic religious nut. Bitter much?)
The cast is strong, the action frentic, the visuals sumptuous, the music rousing. It is flaws (dodgy attitude on race, silliness) but is much better than its reputation.
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