Rank The Indiana Jones Movies

Is there anyone here who does like Crystal Skull? lol

It would be good to get the opposite view, wouldn't it?

1. The Last Crusade
2. Raiders Of The Lost Ark
3. Temple Of The Doom
50. Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull ( )

I had a film with the young Indy but I've never seen it.

Indiana Jones was the hero of my childhood.

I like it a lot better than when I first saw it. Back in 2008 I was definitely letdown big-time, but rewatches and also watching it with the original three improved it a lot for me. The first two will always be my favorites but Last Crusade and Crystal Skull are usually neck and neck for me.

Not sure if I posted anything here yet, so here's my opinion (along with rating and best scene per film):

1. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: 10/10. Best scene has to be when Indy took on the Nazis and fought them on top of their tank. Intense action with a few funny moments!

2. Raiders of the Lost Ark: 10/10. Best scene would have to be the first 10-ish minutes. Seriously, is there a more iconic Indiana Jones scene than when he was chased by a giant boulder?

3. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: 8/10. Best scene goes to the two fighting matches going, Indy facing a rather big guy while Short Round fights the prince.

4. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: 4/10. I'd say the best part is the beginning up until Indy and the second-in-command Soviet dude are rocketed out of the building that they were in (it's late and I don't remember the name of the building).

I hear you. As a kid I was so obsessed with Indy and wanted to be him. I'm honestly surprised at myself I never went as him for Halloween.

Good idea to post favorite scene per movie:


Raiders - Tough call between either the truck chase or the opening of the Ark with the Ark ghosts coming out.

Temple Of Doom - The mine cart chase (pretty much the entire last third).

Last Crusade - The trials near the end/Path of God

Crystal Skull - Maybe when Indy and Mutt are exploring the cemetery and tomb?

Looks pretty damn good for 73. I think he has it in him for one last Indy film, at least. Would be awesome if he gets to do it before retiring the role for good.

I would have to go:

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark- No question about it. It was just such a great adventure film.

2. The Last Crusade- The combo of Harrison Ford and Sean Connery was legendary.

3. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull- Putting this in 3rd is pretty controversial but I loved Indiana Jones so much when this came out in '08 that I overlooked most of the flaws and was just overjoyed to see Indy back.

4.Temple of Doom- Never really liked this one. The Shanghai part was pretty good but all the ritual and cult stuff just seemed too dark for an Indy film.

Raiders is a pretty dark movie too though and arguably more violent and gruesome than Temple Of Doom.

I just didn't like the whole cult environment of Temple of Doom. It just didn't feel like an Indiana Jones movie a lot of the time.

In all fairness it was only the second film of the series and a prequel, and it was deliberately quite different from Raiders.

I still don't care for it much. It was a backwards step from Raiders. The franchise was eventually saved by 'The Last Crusade'.

Spielberg often cites it as his least favorite and says he didn't like the darkness of it. The darker tone is one of the things I always enjoyed about it though, how it's so dark and much more sinister compared with the others. Much as I enjoy The Last Crusade, I was disappointed they played it so safe with that one.

I found the movie to be atrocious, but there were aspects of it that I liked, very much. Cate Blanchett was wonderful as Irina Spalko, in terms of her appearance and mannerisms. She's gorgeous as a brunette and though I don't know if her accent was authentic, she was very consistent about it and it sounded convincing. The character wasn't as threatening or evil as the movie wanted us to believe, but she stole the movie.

I did not care for what was done with the Marion Ravenwood character at all, not at all. But to see Karen Allen was wonderful. I've always felt that the previous Indiana Jones sequels suffered without her presence. When she told Indy in Raiders, "... I'm your ******* partner!" I honestly thought that should've meant permanently. Karen was exceptional, in her day, and the actresses that followed her in the franchise just didn't have her screen presence - or writing that was as good, frankly.

I did not hate Shia Labeouf's presence in the movie. I thought he had a nice rapport with Harrison Ford. But Matt Williams' obtuseness about who his real father was and how he told Indy his mother's name and all that was just too idiotic. I'm honestly shocked at how poorly Spielberg handled everything with holding back Mutt's being Indy's son. But Shia's like and respect for Harrison carried over in their scenes, which was nice to see. With the poor script he was given, he didn't do too bad.

I liked the casting, in general. Even the Russian actor who rides the rocket with Indy and gets carried away by the ants was a real talent. I liked the scope of the movie ... everything from primeval jungles, to nukes, to aliens ... it was a very broad canvas and worthy of the series. I just don't like what they did within that framework, it was kind of bad, especially with the CGI. Not because it's CGI, rather because it was so obvious. Like "close enough" was good enough. But the desire to entertain was very genuine - and you could tell that. I love that the most about The Crystal Skull, that its heart was in the right place.

I always wondered what the series as a whole would've been like had Marion returned for the other two films she wasn't in.

If someone out in the audience is Jewish, or Christian, I don't think it's possible to imagine the Indiana Jones franchise having topped Raiders of the Lost Ark. Very, very few movies know how to handle The Power of God, even if they're Bible stories. The best they can come up with - and it's wholly appropriate to do so - is to just have a booming voice coming from the sky, preferably with the sun peeking from behind some clouds with shafts of light beaming out. The tonality was handled expertly by Steven Spielberg and you could really believe that the Ark was what they say it is. In short, any other sequel, in comparison to this, would have to be inferior. It couldn't measure up, because the franchise showed us it's "top." And, as it turns out, that's exactly what happened, anyway.

Temple of Doom and Last Cruisade would've diminished the significance of the Marion Ravenwood character, had she been in those. Of course, she wouldn't have been such a "girl" about being in the jungle, as Willie was, nor would she have been a Nazi, like Elsa. But she would've been forced to yield to the tonality of those films, such that some of her spark would've left. And I'm glad I was never going to get to see that. But to have Marion in other sequels that tied into Raiders, somehow, might've worked and those I would've loved to see. We weren't going to get those movies, because that's not what George Lucas wanted. They were going to follow the style of old matinee movies and serials and that meant episodic, self-contained and unrelated adventures. And who knows how Harrison might've felt about having to share the spotlight so entirely for all of his Indy movies? If it could've been done, though, and done well ... yes, having Marion Ravenwood as Indy's woman in all of the movies would've been the way to go and we probably would've had more (and better) movies, with that team, as well.

Having recently rewatched a couple of them:

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark
2. Temple of Doom (Okay, has some issues, and went in not expecting too much, but is very well directed/crafted)
3. Last Crusade
4. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

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I agree about the depiction of the power of God in those films. The Sankara stones seemed a little less substantial but definitely still conveyed mystical properties – who knows, maybe the same being created them too. I've just been reading about the controversy over the representation of Kali, amongst other things, and that's a great shame in an otherwise very well made production.

Also, I think it made sense for Marion not to be in the second one because, I think I'm right in saying, it's set before Raiders.