Ranking the Indiana Jones Series

[Punisher Rising]

5 is likely to enter pre-production sometime this year with the release only two years from now and filming likely to begin next year. Hope we get news.

 

[ban768]

1) Temple of Doom
2) The Last Crusade
3) Raiders of the Lost Ark






4) Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

 

[Punisher Rising]

Although TOD is usually my number one there's times I've been tempted to switch to Raiders. Both are equals to me and it can definitely be a back and forth choice, sometimes.

 

[sueb1863]

Raiders
Last Crusade
Temple of Doom
Crystal Skull

 

[Mandon Knight]

News update on Indy 5.....

Steven Spielberg Is Reportedly Set To Begin Production On The Fifth INDIANA JONES Movie In 2019

After the acquisition of Lucasfilm by Disney in 2012, the "House of Mouse" has found great success with the Star Wars franchise. Disney is poised to continue that success by bringing back another beloved Lucasfilm franchise, Indiana Jones.

Although there have been some rumors and whispers about the next film over the years, some concrete news came in the form of Steven Spielberg (Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones) officially signing on to direct Indy 5 in 2016. Another welcome bit of news, was that Harrison Ford will come back to don the iconic fedora once more.

With the release of Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One due this year, the famed director's next slate of films is Indiana Jones 5 and the West Side Story remake. Spielberg is hoping to start filming Indy 5 in 2019, which is currently looking at a summer release date in 2020.

No specific plot details have been revealed for Indiana Jones 5, but it has been confirmed that Shia LaBeouf will not reprise his role as Mutt Williams.

 

[OutOfBoose]

Lack of love for Doom is rather underwhelming.

My ranking:
1) Doom
2) Riders
3) Crusade

 

[-JKR-]

Lack of love for Doom is rather underwhelming.

My ranking:
1) Doom
2) Riders
3) Crusade

I agree, man!

In my opinion Raiders of the Lost Ark is still the BEST MOVIE in the entire franchise, and I don't think any sequel will ever be able to match it. BUT...

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is absolutely the best and most exciting sequel. I love how different it is from the first one. And as much as I love the bickering between Harrison Ford and Sean Connery, I always found part three to be too much of a weak retreat of the original. Lucas and Spielberg chickened out with that one, but it's still great fun.

The less said about the fourth the better. It's not even Shia LaBeouf's involvement, it's just a dumb movie in way too many aspects and may as well be Steven Spielberg's weakest directorial effort.

 

[DyeLorean]

KOTCS would've been even worse if Spielberg wasn't the director. It's a flawed film, but it is still watchable.

 

[Aximili86]

Yeah, Doom's great. Sort of unique in how it's a really mean-spirited, nasty, pissed-off Spielberg flick, we don't get that very often. And yeah, it's cool in how different it is to Raiders - Crusade's a blast, but it is obviously really "Raiders-lite".

Temple's crude, it's rude, it's sexist & racist, all totally valid criticisms - but all of those 30s pulp stories Indy's based off were, y'know? It's uncomfortable, but it all totally fits with the Indy vibe.

 

[OutOfBoose]

I agree, man!

In my opinion Raiders of the Lost Ark is still the BEST MOVIE in the entire franchise, and I don't think any sequel will ever be able to match it. BUT...

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is absolutely the best and most exciting sequel. I love how different it is from the first one. And as much as I love the bickering between Harrison Ford and Sean Connery, I always found part three to be too much of a weak retreat of the original. Lucas and Spielberg chickened out with that one, but it's still great fun.

The less said about the fourth the better. It's not even Shia LaBeouf's involvement, it's just a dumb movie in way too many aspects and may as well be Steven Spielberg's weakest directorial effort.

Agree!

About the fourth one... I refuse to acknowledge it as an Indy movie. I prefer to think it doesn't exist.

Yeah, Doom's great. Sort of unique in how it's a really mean-spirited, nasty, pissed-off Spielberg flick, we don't get that very often. And yeah, it's cool in how different it is to Raiders - Crusade's a blast, but it is obviously really "Raiders-lite".

Temple's crude, it's rude, it's sexist & racist, all totally valid criticisms - but all of those 30s pulp stories Indy's based off were, y'know? It's uncomfortable, but it all totally fits with the Indy vibe.

Spot on.

 

[Aximili86]

Ehh, I actually mostly really like KOTCS narrative-wise, it's fine. Pretty classic Indy, exactly what you'd think of with "Indy in the 50s". 20 years older, with a kid, taking on Commie scum & gray-aliens. t:

I only hate the way it's shot, that easy-way-out CG everything. It's basically like the Star Wars prequels: conceptually it's totally fine, just the execution is really off.

KOTCS gets way too much hate, seriously. It's the worst of them, but the script's probably better than Crusade's is.

 

[Herofan]

Yeah, Doom's great. Sort of unique in how it's a really mean-spirited, nasty, pissed-off Spielberg flick, we don't get that very often. And yeah, it's cool in how different it is to Raiders - Crusade's a blast, but it is obviously really "Raiders-lite".

Temple's crude, it's rude, it's sexist & racist

It's definitely politically incorrect, even offensive but I wouldn't go that far as outright racist or sexist.
Indy is respectful of and later helping the Indian villagers he meets, Short Round is always treated respectfully and for the middle basically is the protagonist.
Willie Scott is obviously a Dumb Blonde and target of a lot of the comic relief but she's also a bit of an everyperson character (she whines and screams but so would we) and she's treated pretty sympathetically after the first third and also steps up to being more of a hero too.

 

[Aximili86]

Well, no, guess I should say I don't think it's intentional racism from Spielberg, he's clearly not that type of guy, but a lot of people seem to.

It's just sort of a product of the times, less uptight about correctness and innoffensiveness in the early 80s, matched with that gung-ho pulpy 1930s masculinity thing. Which, frankly, fits perfectly for Indy anyway, everything else about it is "pulp", why not include that stuff too?

But yeah, Indy himself, Spielberg himself, clearly not bigots. It's just that pre-correcteness era at play.

 

[Mandon Knight]

Well, no, guess I should say I don't think it's intentional racism from Spielberg, he's clearly not that type of guy, but a lot of people seem to.

It's just sort of a product of the times, less uptight about correctness and innoffensiveness in the early 80s, matched with that gung-ho pulpy 1930s masculinity thing. Which, frankly, fits perfectly for Indy anyway, everything else about it is "pulp", why not include that stuff too?

But yeah, Indy himself, Spielberg himself, clearly not bigots. It's just that pre-correcteness era at play.

In the same period of history as the films where made, watch Octopussy, the 1983 Bond film, set in India in 'contemporary' 80's times (as apposed to the era that TOD was set in) and the language & attitudes aren't very different, sadly. So yep, it's the film makers reflecting the period of history to the attitudes of the day NOT out and out racism as such.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

One complaint I have about Temple of Doom is that although it is a prequel taking place one year before Raiders of the Lost Ark, he's ok with snakes there and the movie doesn't progress into his fear of snakes.

Quality ranking:

• Raiders of the Lost Ark
• The Last Crusade
• Temple of Doom
• Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls

Joy ranking:

• The Last Crusade
• Temple of Doom
• Raiders of the Lost Ark
• Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls

 

[Aximili86]

Haha. Seems a little nitpicky there with the snakes thing, there were quite a few years between TOD and Raiders, could have had a bad experience in between.

What always bugged me more with it being a prequel is his whole reluctance to buying into the supernatural stuff at first in Raiders. After...yeah, dealing with a bunch of legit-occult religious fanatic dudes in India years prior.

 

[Herofan]

Maybe from being more familiar, earlier on with Judaism/Christianity (and then moving away from them) he was particularly skeptical of them and their supernatural aspects.

 

[Aximili86]

Maybe, yeah. But you'd sort of figure even with his academic/empirical background, after having first-hand witnessed a bunch of cultish human sacrifice mumbo-jumbo and possession, he'd be a little less willing to just dismiss all the Judaism stuff as fairytale myth out of hand.

 

[I'm Old Greg]

KOTCS is by far the best Indy film and Spielberg film.
I proposed to my girlfriend in a packed theater at a midnight showing. I was in full Indy atire. Everyone cheered and clapped but after the movie people booed and then spit on me and my girlfriend for being dressed up as Indy. The proposal was off but Everytime I look deep into Shia’s eyes I am swept away on the Adventure of Aliens and tombs and old crazy men backstabbing bff’s and nazi Cate Blanchet. Which makes it my all time favorite.

 

[Punisher Rising]

Maybe, yeah. But you'd sort of figure even with his academic/empirical background, after having first-hand witnessed a bunch of cultish human sacrifice mumbo-jumbo and possession, he'd be a little less willing to just dismiss all the Judaism stuff as fairytale myth out of hand.

I always chalked it up to Indy not wanting to hurt his teaching credentials at the university by telling them what he saw and experienced during the events of TOD, so he kept quiet about it. If you were a Dean at a university and one of your professors told you about what he saw and experienced during the events of TOD, you'd probably think he was crazy too and want to revoke his credentials.

 

[Aximili86]

Yeah, that's a good way to explain it away.

I haven't seen Crusade in a while, does he dismiss the supernatural elements with the bad guy hiring him to find it at the start? Probably does too.

 

[Punisher Rising]

Can't remember for certain if he did. It's been a good while since I last had a chance to watch them, but IIRC he says something about the grail being something of a bedtime story. Which implies he's either a skeptic or acting like one.

 

[AverageMan]

I honestly couldn't decide between the three.

probably Raiders, Temple of Doom, last Crusade, but there's nothing in it.

Only definite is Crystal Skull is last.

 

[Punisher Rising]

Skull has grown on me a lot since the first viewing but back in 2008 I was definitely among the many who were heavily disappointed. It's held up surprisingly decently over the years.

 

[Punisher Rising]

Slightly older but still fairly recent article on Indy 5 I came upon, from September 2017:

There are now three years to wait until the next Indiana Jones arrives, so we're going to take every little morsel about the film that we can.

Thankfully, Harrison Ford is happy to oblige on that front, and has been busy teasing a few details about the upcoming sequel to Graham Norton.

Appearing on this week's Graham Norton Show, Harrison revealed that the updated release date is locked in and that it's going to be "great". That's a relief.

Teasing the direction for the movie, Harrison confirmed that number five will revisit the intrepid explorer now that he's a little older.

"I'm looking forward to working with Steven [Spielberg] again and to revisiting the character later in life," he explained. "It's interesting to see it in a different light.

"It will be fun and a good thing to do."

Some fans will be pleased to hear that the film's "different light" won't be including Shia LaBeouf as Indy's son-turned-sidekick. (Sorry, Crystal Skull fans.)

"Harrison plays Indiana Jones, that I can certainly say, and the Shia LaBeouf character is not in the film," screenwriter David Koepp confirmed earlier this month.

While Koepp is clearly not a Crystal Skull fan, Spielberg himself is, apparently, as he recently revealed that his least favourite Indiana Jones instalment is actually Temple of Doom(!).

Good we're finally getting something concrete. Sounds promising. Still makes me upset that Spielberg is so down on TOD. I'd love for 5 to be more akin to that entry. Bring back the pulpy, EC comics style from it. I feel the last two movies really lacked the pulp feel the first two had that made them feel so unique.