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Indiana Jones Films Ranked

1. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: An Indy outing through and through IMHO. Fun, witty, fast paced and with a terrific cast. Ford and Connery have terrific chemistry and make the movie worthwhile almost on their own I think. I also like the epic scale and feel of the search for the Grail.

2. Raiders of the Lost Ark: A great movie that's fun from start to finish. Again, it feels like a real Indy outing to me (no surprises here since it's the first one...) and it's got that epic feeling to it. I think it's probably the father / son dynamic in TLC that puts it in second place, not first, for me.

3. Temple of Doom: Some fun moments, some nicely eerie places but not quite enough to put it even close to the two others for me. I find Willie to be a complete nuisance and hinderance, nothing more. The dinner scene is, literally, disgusting and not much more. And generally speaking, I just don't find this movie develops quite the epic feel of the other two. For the record, I don't mind Shortround one bit and would have him in EVERY Indy movie rather than have Willie in one.

4. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: Indy flickers through every now and then but it seldom allowed to shine through, I think. Don't get me wrong, I actually really like the idea with the aliens (or transdimensional beings or whatever) and I like the overall setting. However, I DO NOT like Shia LaBoef (why does this guy get parts in movies?!?), I don't like fight scenes that go on forever (Indy vs. Russian guy vs. Ants), I don't like over the top where it's over the top in a way that isn't "Indy-over-the-top" anymore (refrigerator, I'm looking at you), and I certainy DON'T LIKE annyoing sidekicks swinging through the jungle with other monkeys. Apart from all of that I simply felt this movie never managed to develop a sense of urgency let a lone a feeling of epic scale at any point. I felt it was aimless and plain boring in many parts and just never came together as a whole IMHO. Oh, and I thought the whole double-, triple- or whatever-agent thing was annyoing and unnecessary. You could see it from a mile off. And it's never a good sign when you get that feeling because you sense they simply put it in there because they felt having the guy flip again would be really outsmarting the audience...

The one thing I really adore about all of the movies, by the way, is the music. I think Williams managed to create memorable scores and individual tunes for all of them. I love listening to all four of them.
 
If I had to rank them, I'd say:

1. Raiders
2. Crusade
3. Crystal Skulls
4. Temple

Temple is last not only because of its inappropriately dark tone, but because it has the one violation of physics that I can't suspend my disbelief for: The inflatable raft falling right-side up. :D

The only thing I really didn't like about Crystal Skulls was that several of the action scenes dragged on a bit long.
 
To me...unlike Star Wars, the Indy films never topped the first one.

My list is identical to the one above...

1. Raiders
2. Crusade
3. Skull
4. Temple (Last because of the physics thing mentioned above, Short Round, and the constantly-screaming blonde chick)
 
1. ...and the Last Crusade
2. Raiders of the Lost Ark
3. ...and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
4. ...and the Temple of Doom
 
Black Lodge said:
Didn't they go down a bunch of huge waterfalls in Crystal Skulls like it was an amusement park ride or something?
Click to expand...


Yeah, and that too was a cringe-inducing sequence...

But...at least it didn't have Short Round and screaming woman in it...
 
I would take ToD over KotCS any day of the week. I am surprised at the love for Crystal over Doom on these posts. I figured there would be more negativity towards Crystal than I expected.
 
Raiders
Crusade
Doom

I don't even consider Skull an Indy film, it's such an embarrassing piece of shit.
 
1. RotLA/ToD/TLC/KotCS

I love them all. Each have their problems, but all are fun rides.

Oh, and people who don't like Short Round, there is a special place in hell just for you! Say hi to Kali and Mola Ram. :p
 
1. Raiders of the Lost Ark
2. Last Crusade
3. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

4. Temple of Doom

I like the first three on the list just fine. ToD on the other hand...what an unwatchable piece of shit, the whole movie feels 'off' compared to the other three, which are like fun theme park rides. Doom just feels like paying to get kicked in the balls, it's that painful.
 
1. Raiders - perfectly paced with a beautiful, feisty leading lady; a real contender for the title of greatest adventure film ever made.

2. Temple of Doom - I like that it gave Indy an adventure significantly different to that in Raiders, particularly in terms of locale. I like Short Round and don't mind Willie too much.

3. Last Crusade - great father/son chemistry between Connery and Ford and some fun action set pieces, but it loses some points with me for feeling a bit too much like a retread of Raiders and for the slapstick characterization of Marcus and Sallah.

4. Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls - I like the father/son chemistry between Ford and LaBeouf. In fact Mutt turned out to be a much better character than I was expecting him to be (although I certainly wouldn't want him to take over the series as the central character). The over the top action bits - like the fridge and Mutt swinging with the monkeys - don't bother me too much, and I'm fine with the alien plot. But the film loses points for a weak villain (and a poor performance from Cate Blanchett, who failed to properly capture the OTT, tongue in cheek quality she was obviously trying to achieve), the subplot with Indy's old friend betraying him not really going anywhere, and - hate to say it - a rusty performance by Karen Allen as Marion.
 
1: Raiders of the Lost Ark
2: Last Crusade
3 -4: Temple of Doom vs. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull :confused:

Raiders has always been and will always be the most solid entry in the series with its darker tone and excellent blend of writing, acting, and music.

Last Crusade was almost as good as Raiders but a little too "slapstick" at times. Great performances from Ford, Connery, and Elliot (Brody) however, and it was nice to get to know Indy a little better through his relationship with his father.

I'm kind of torn on the last two of the movies. I'd probably lean more towards Temple of Doom for the #3 slot with Kingdom of the Crystal Skull at #4 just because the last movie just didn't seem as solid as the previous entries despite being enjoyable all the same. I liked the fact that Indy and Marion reunited and, as it turns out, have a child together that Indy can call "junior" ;). Temple of Doom was previously my least favorite of the OT but it still had plenty of good scenes and dialogue despite a fairly weak story/plot. I never noticed until recently that Temple of Doom was actually a "prequel" of sorts as it actually took place BEFORE Raiders although it didn't actually introduce anything particularly significant, at least not in the same way that the Star Wars prequels did.
 
Ethros said:
1 being the best I would say-
1. Raiders
2. Last Crusade
3. Kingdom Crystal Skull
4. Temple of Doom

I don't dislike any of them, and I base the above on pure personal enjoyment levels of them
Click to expand...

Reverse numbers 1 and 2, and that's pretty much my list.
 
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