In what order do you rate the Indiana Jones Movies

[BuddyGus]

raiders of the lost ark
the last crusade
temple of doom
crystal skull

What he said..

 

[Sledge Hammer!]

Raiders and Temple of Doom are both considered absolute classics for me, while Crystal Skull and Last Crusade are both about the same level, films that I see as somewhat flawed, but which I still enjoy overall despite that.

Speak to me not of the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles...

It's interesting, but Indiana Jones sequels always tend to suffer from the same thing...

When Temple of Doom came out there was a big backlash against it, people said it was too dark, and blamed it for not being Raiders of the Lost Ark.

When Last Crusade came out there was a big backlash against it, people said it was too light, too much of a comedy, and people blamed it for not being as serious as the previous films that had come out.

When Crystal Skull came out there was a big backlash against it, people said it was too over the top, and people blamed it for being based around 50's pulp sci-fi rather than sticking with pure 30's pulp adventure and religious artifacts, as previous films had done.

Personally I think one of the great strengths of the Indiana Jones series is that each adventure is very distict and each film is in fact different to all the others, while still maintaining the core Indy character in a believable way. Sure, some may be more to a particular taste than others, but overall they all work as legitimate and different Indy adventures for me, and as such I can take each one on their merrits and on what they are trying to be and set out to achieve. In fact I'd rather have that than what we get with most film sequels, pretty much the same adventure all over again, only in slightly different packaging. That's just me though.

 

[Mr. Fusion]

raiders of the lost ark
the last crusade
temple of doom
crystal skull

I'd have to agree.

 

[ortiz344]

1.Raiders
2.TLC
3 tie
TOD / KOTCS

TOD some great scenes (bridge/mine car) but too 'dark' , lousy macguffin, flying raft scene was terrible

KOTCS fun movie didnt use indy enough (almost no whip use at all)
monkey /fridge scene were terrible

 

[FLOSI]

oh,
raiders of the lost ark
the last crusade
temple of doom
crystal skull
........

Me too. .....

 

[Doktor Von Evil]

I love the first one, the other two I think are equal. Crystal skull I agree, not remotely the same league. Anyone who likes it more I would suspect is really young or has some odd attraction to monkeys and/or has the ability to ignore giant plot holes.

1.Raiders of the Lost Ark- A perfect movie in almost every way.

2. Temple of Doom- I know a lot of people hate it, but to me it maintains the spirit of the old serial/pulp novels that inspired the character in the first place; outlandish action set pieces, funny sidekicks, "mouthy broads", and over the top villains. And besides it's really fun.

3. Last Crusade- A not so great remake of the first one, but you gotta love Connery!

Crystal Skull... I won't even recognize on the list. A total mess from start to finish.

As an aside, someone on the internet pointed out that in Crystal Skull, if Indy had never gotten involved, the film would have turned out the exact same way (aliens sucking minds and killing everyone). The bad guys still would've lost. I thought it was funny and then realized this logic applies to all the Indy films except Temple of Doom. In Raiders, the Ark still would've blown up Belloq and all the Nazis. In Last Crusade the Grail still could not have been removed from the tomb or anyone who didn't "choose wisely" would've been killed with old age.

Temple of Doom is really the only one where Indy had more to do with the villains death than the actual object everyone was seeking. Nothing like a game of Sankara Stone hot potato invoked by some incantation

 

[zombierider]

Absolutely.

Crystal Skull is a very bad move. I remember watching it in Cannes, in the beginning everybody was screaming, at the end everybody was silent. What a mess. The geography is totally wrong, so many things, like Indy telling how he learned Quechua from Pancho Villa´s men, impossible for so many reasons. Lucas should study REAL History instead of creating a nonsense script with Koepp... I know Raiders and the other two Indy movies took licenses, but Skull is just too much...and all wrong.

1.Raiders of the Lost Ark- A perfect movie in almost every way.

2. Temple of Doom- I know a lot of people hate it, but to me it maintains the spirit of the old serial/pulp novels that inspired the character in the first place; outlandish action set pieces, funny sidekicks, "mouthy broads", and over the top villains. And besides it's really fun.

3. Last Crusade- A not so great remake of the first one, but you gotta love Connery!

Crystal Skull... I won't even recognize on the list. A total mess from start to finish.

As an aside, someone on the internet pointed out that in Crystal Skull, if Indy had never gotten involved, the film would have turned out the exact same way (aliens sucking minds and killing everyone). The bad guys still would've lost. I thought it was funny and then realized this logic applies to all the Indy films except Temple of Doom. In Raiders, the Ark still would've blown up Belloq and all the Nazis. In Last Crusade the Grail still could not have been removed from the tomb or anyone who didn't "choose wisely" would've been killed with old age.

Temple of Doom is really the only one where Indy had more to do with the villains death than the actual object everyone was seeking. Nothing like a game of Sankara Stone hot potato invoked by some incantation

 

[Jimmy C]

1 Raiders of the Lost Ark
2 Last Crusade
3 Temple of Doom
4 Indiana Jones and the Ewok Adventure

5 KOTCS


Jim

 

[SAB]

1. Temple of Doom
2. Raiders of the Lost Ark

The first two are almost companion pieces, or two sides of a coin.
Raiders introduces the character and we so all the classic Indy stuff for the first time.

Temple of Doom looks at everything the first one didn't do (or have) and pushes the volume on it up to 1000. It is completely bat____ insane and thats why I love it so much.

3. The Last Crusade

I think this one gets far too much love because of Sean Connery. I think the criticism is correct that its 'Raiders + Indy's dad' but it is still fun.

4. The Crystal Skull

What can you say really?
I'll leave it to this industry professional:
https://mysterymanonfilm.blogspot.com/2008/05/50-flaws-of-indy-iv.html

 

[Merc]

1) Raiders
2) Last Crusade
3) Temple of Doom
4) Crystal Skull

 

[EVILFACE]

Tod
rotla
tlc

























kotcs

Still agree.

 

[a-dev]

1 - The Last Crusade - Better characters, in my opinion, bring this one to the top. Connery is a given, River Phoenix was an excellent young Indy, Sallah and Marcus get more screen time and are great, and the villains are ALMOST as good as the first one.
2 - Raiders of the Lost Ark - Villains almost bring this to the top. If I could rate them equally I probably would...
3 - Temple of Doom - Not a disaster, but not nearly as good as the others.
4 - Crystal Skull - Some good moments, but overall pretty terrible. Aliens was not a direction Indy films should have gone to. I don't care if it was the '50s - that's no excuse!

Not sure if I posted in this thread but I agree with the above ranking if not all of the comments. ToD is a great film to my mind, very close behind TLC and RoTLA.

KOTCS was just boring - too much exposition, waste of John Hurt on a stupid character, CGI and irritating Marion Ravenwood removing any kind of suspense from the film.

 

[jye4ever]

Exactly the way they were released is how I rate them.

Last one was an EF.

 

[choopie]

I'd rate them in the order they were released. I love ToD, but Raiders is perfection, IMO.

I forced myself to watch KOTCS again when the Indy marathon was on TV last weekend. Admittedly I really enjoyed the first half of the movie. Some great action and good interaction between Indy and Mutt on their first meeting and Indy was his classic self. Then we get to South America and things get bad. Then Marion shows up and things go from bad to worse and it's all downhill from there. Whatever spark the movie had at the beginning of the film is completely gone by the time Mutt and Indy hit the jungle.

Such a shame. I really felt like the film had potential and then something went missing in the middle of it.

 

[hemble]

For me I have to say this is how rate the films.

1 - ROTLA
2 - TLC
3 - Tie TOD & KOTCS

Ron

 

[ebor]

I rate them in the order they were released.

I even enjoyed the last after I watched it a few times.

 

[xerxes]

For me I have to say this is how rate the films.

1 - ROTLA
2 - TLC
3 - Tie TOD & KOTCS

Ron

This... ROTLA just pips TLC. Both TOD and KOTCS have lots of good stuff but plenty of bad too. Watching the films now it really is apparent there is a large tonal shift between Raiders and the remainder.

 

[rushmore223]

1. Raiders (by far) - Perfect in my eyes. Had a great mix of action and quieter moments that are missing from the other films. Was funny without trying too hard ::ahem:: Crusade::ahem::

I often wonder why the other films never took the time to develop the characters and story outside of action scenes. Some of my favorite moments are the non-action sequences. i.e. Indy and Belloq in Bar, Marion and Sallah at the shipyard, Indy and Sallah poison dates scene, The Map Room and many more.

2. Temple - This movie really SUFFERS (and so does the viewer) from the casting of Kate Capshaw, she is beyond annoying and adds nothing to what was an otherwise rich movie.

3. Crusade - I enjoyed it, I laughed, I was at the edge of my seat...

...but something was missing. Mostly it ignored the need to develop it's characters further, and missed out on an opportunity to see Indy in a different light. Also, while I did laugh, I felt it tried too hard to be funny, often too much at the expense of Marcus Brody.

4 Crystal Skull - Ugh! Shia LeBouf, why are so many directors in love with him? I am way past tired of this actor. Ridiculous action scenes - Mutt Swinging through trees with Monkeys! Please no.
Aliens (or extra-dimensional beings) - This just is not Indy to me. John Hurt - Wasted in the role. Cate B. - Wasted in the role. Surviving an Atomic Blast by hiding in a fridge - lame and stupid.

On the positive side, it was nice just to see the character on the screen again, but nostalgia wont carry the next movie. Karen Black - also nice to see her come back.

 

[HottoyzJoker]

1. Raiders of the lost ark
2. Indiana Jones and the Temple of doom
3. Indiana Jones and the last crusade

Id like to forget the other one...

 

[Khev]

Ranked on quality:

Raiders (by a mile)
TOD
TLC
KOTCS

Ranked on my enjoyment:

TOD (by a mile)
Raiders
TLC
KOTCS