Which Indy film is the best?

Out of all the films, which one is definitively the best?


  • Total voters
    264

Temple Raider

Active member
I know this is an older thread, but I figured I'd use this since I did a search to see if there was another ranking thread before, and I found this in the search results.

Anyway:


Temple Of Doom
Raiders Of The Lost Ark
The Last Crusade
Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull


I enjoy them all very much :cool:
 

Crack that whip

New member
Ooh, I'd forgotten about this thread! Hm, I see I already posted in it, but back when the fourth movie was just out; time for an update...

Crack that whip said:
I still have a hard time ranking just Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade relative to each other, and I've had almost two decades in which to decide upon it. Having seen Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull just once, less than twelve hours ago, I can't possibly come up with any meaningful, definitive, lasting personal ranking, but I'll go ahead and try anyway:

1. - Raiders of the Lost Ark
2. (tie) - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
2. (tie) - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
2. (tie) - Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

;)

I'm not sure what I was doing putting all the non-Raiders movies at a tie; I must have been on a general Indy high. Here's how I'd rank them now (while it's a little outside the scope of the topic question, I'd like to also add the TV show to the mix; I see at least one other person includes it as well):

1. - Raiders of the Lost Ark
2. - The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles / The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones
3. - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
4. - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
5. - Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
 

HJTHX1138

New member
Oddly enough, in the order they came out . . . mostly

1. Raiders (sometimes Doom)
2. Doom
3. Last Crusade
4. Kingdom
 

indy dave

Member
I think I would agree with this. The YIJC were fantastic in my opinion.

Crack that whip said:
Ooh, I'd forgotten about this thread! Hm, I see I already posted in it, but back when the fourth movie was just out; time for an update...



I'm not sure what I was doing putting all the non-Raiders movies at a tie; I must have been on a general Indy high. Here's how I'd rank them now (while it's a little outside the scope of the topic question, I'd like to also add the TV show to the mix; I see at least one other person includes it as well):

1. - Raiders of the Lost Ark
2. - The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles / The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones
3. - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
4. - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
5. - Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
 

Supernatural

New member
I like them in the exact order in which they were released.

If I were to include the show it would fall inbetween Crusade and Crystal Skull.

Which again would be the exact order in which they were released.
 

Henry W Jones

New member
PM from Temple Raider said:
Hello, I saw your post in the thread ranking the series and I agree with you ranking them in release order. I like TLC a lot, but I always felt it was a notch below the first two, contrary to what many others feel. You'd also say Raiders and TOD are better than TLC (even if TOD isn't as good as Raiders)?

Henry W Jones said:
Hey Temple Raider. To me Raiders is a perfect film even with its flaws. It has a good balance of everything and is my favorite film of all time. My first experience with Raiders was in 1981 and I was almost six years old. Loved it ever since. I saw TOD in 1984 and I was almost 9. I thought it was great but I still liked Raiders better. The first movie to ever disappoint me was LC. I saw it in 1989 and was almost 14. I did not like it the first time I saw it. I thought it had too many jokes, I didn't like the "named after the dog" bit at all. It ruined the "coolness" of the name. I hated Marcus being so incapable and it just didn't feel right. Went a week later and liked it better and ot has grown on me over the years. Saw KOTCS opening day in 2008 at the age of way older than before. It was fun but had all the things I disliked about LC with too much CGI. I wasn't disappointed cuz after LC I kind of expected it.

Welcome to the Raven. This place is a lot of fun. HWJ

Temple Raider said:
Thanks for replying and the welcome

I'm glad to meet another fan who thinks TOD is great. The hate it gets continues to astound me, and I don't see how anyone can regard it as the worst of the series. I can understand thinking it's not as good as Raiders, but a terrible movie and inferior to TLC and KOTCS? That's just crazy. Unlike a lot of others, I like how it was such a dark, foreboding and mean-spirited movie with a huge sense of danger the others didn't have and how it took Indy to new territory. I like that it had new villains and a new artifact. And Indy himself is just incredible in it, definitely his most heroic and edgy portrayal of the series. It seems a lot of fans here like it, which is great, because everywhere else it gets bashed into oblivion.

I think Raiders and TOD are hands down the two best movies of the series and they define the character. I find TLC and even KOTCS to be fun, but to me they're not in the same league and not quite as good. They're essentially sillier, funnier and family-friendly versions of the first two, playing the dangerous and often scary scenarios Indy faces for laughs instead of thrills and danger like in the first two.

You'd definitely say the first two are better than TLC and KOTCS?

In my opinion without a doubt. I watch it more than any of the other sequels but I can see why some people might find TOD a little dark. Doesn't mean I agree with them though. :) You will find at the Raven a lot of folks hate Willie with a passion and others who can't stand Shorty. It's a mixed bag of nuts around here. But me personally, give me TOD over LC and KOTCS any day.
 

Temple Raider

Active member
As I said, I've never minded Willie. As someone who normally can't stand comic relief characters, I thought she added a lot of good humor and chuckles to the proceedings without being overly annoying. Short Round I thought was awesome, his chemistry with Indy is very touching with how he kind of looks up to him as a father and he too added some good humor to the movie. Beyond that, he's actually not a useless character either, with him escaping and going out of his way to help Indy and free him from his possession. How often are child characters in movies utterly useless? Short Round is definitely a character who doesn't fall into that trap, IMO.

Maybe TOD's incredibly dark tone and uncomfortable subject matter (child slavery, human sacrifice, cults, etc.) makes it a little too much for some people, but that's what I love about it. It made the movie so much more thrilling for me, Indy in a dark, forboding place like the temple up against true evil like Mola Ram and his Thuggees. It's up against this evil that his true character shines through, a noble and heroic adventurer who puts aside his own desire for fame to save and free the slave children from their oppressors. TOD has a sense of danger and terror to it that none of the others have, not even Raiders. That's one thing I love about it so much, the unapologetic darkness.

To me, there's no such thing as a bad IJ movie, I think all are good and entertaining in their own way, but to me, Raiders and TOD are what define Indy for me. Raiders is a timeless masterpiece and TOD is just a rip-roaring adventure to Hell and back that pulls no punches and takes the character into uncharted territory. TLC and KOTCS are fun bonuses to me.
 

Henry W Jones

New member
Temple Raider said:
As I said, I've never minded Willie. As someone who normally can't stand comic relief characters, I thought she added a lot of good humor and chuckles to the proceedings without being overly annoying. Short Round I thought was awesome, his chemistry with Indy is very touching with how he kind of looks up to him as a father and he too added some good humor to the movie. Beyond that, he's actually not a useless character either, with him escaping and going out of his way to help Indy and free him from his possession. How often are child characters in movies utterly useless? Short Round is definitely a character who doesn't fall into that trap, IMO.

Maybe TOD's incredibly dark tone and uncomfortable subject matter (child slavery, human sacrifice, cults, etc.) makes it a little too much for some people, but that's what I love about it. It made the movie so much more thrilling for me, Indy in a dark, forboding place like the temple up against true evil like Mola Ram and his Thuggees. It's up against this evil that his true character shines through, a noble and heroic adventurer who puts aside his own desire for fame to save and free the slave children from their oppressors. TOD has a sense of danger and terror to it that none of the others have, not even Raiders. That's one thing I love about it so much, the unapologetic darkness.

To me, there's no such thing as a bad IJ movie, I think all are good and entertaining in their own way, but to me, Raiders and TOD are what define Indy for me. Raiders is a timeless masterpiece and TOD is just a rip-roaring adventure to Hell and back that pulls no punches and takes the character into uncharted territory. TLC and KOTCS are fun bonuses to me.

One of my favorite things about TOD is that it is it's own movie and other than the sword bit at the end it does not really copy Raiders too much. It does not try to follow a heavy formula. I find all the characters to be entertaining and I was a kid when it came out so I love me some Short Round. I also agree there is no bad IJ films just some are superior to others.
 

Temple Raider

Active member
Definitely. And it still keeps true to the adventurous spirit of Raiders while also doing it's own thing. To me the two movies go together great despite being so different.

And of course TOD has the epic mine cart chase, which is still my favorite scene in the entire series. That never fails to be an incredibly thrilling scene to watch. And I can't stress enough how much I adore The Slave Children's Crusade music track from the movie. Listening to that I always get a surge of energy, it's so heroic-sounding.
 

Crack that whip

New member
Henry W Jones said:
One of my favorite things about TOD is that it is it's own movie and other than the sword bit at the end it does not really copy Raiders too much. It does not try to follow a heavy formula.

While it's a bit off topic, I find Raiders, Crusade and Skull actually work as something of a loose trilogy of sorts, while Temple of Doom is the one that really stands apart as a completely separate, distinct adventure.
 

Udvarnoky

Well-known member
It does, but it's really by no sin of its own. Wind back the clock to a world where only Raiders and Temple exist, and Temple works seamlessly enough as a sequel, albeit one that explores new territory. Last Crusade, on the other hand, was designed both as a curtain close and, seemingly, a reaction to Temple, and thus went the crowd-pleasing route of reprising specific elements from Raiders. Suddenly, Christian artifacts, Nazis, and throwing from the prologue to Indy's college became series motifs, and Marcus and Sallah became series regulars. That subtly changes the posture of the whole series and Temple's position in it.

Even with its non-Christian artifact, Crystal Skull still proved fairly beholden to that (retroactive) interconnectedness and domestication the series evolved to have as opposed to the originally conceived James Bond approach. Between Marion's reprisal, Henry Sr. and Marcus Brody's repeated acknowledgement (if not presence), the now obligatory Marshall College transition, and the return to the warehouse where the ark is stored among other things, the movies become a family that Temple of Doom is decidedly the step-child of. Compared to Lord of the Rings or something, the movies are still relatively self-contained, but you can definitely see how Indiana Jones sort of got reverse-engineered into a saga.
 

Crack that whip

New member
Udvarnoky said:
It does, but it's really by no sin of its own.

It wasn't meant as a criticism (of Temple), merely an observation. If anything, it's more of a defense of Skull (to what limited extent to which I might consider the connectedness or lack thereof to have any effect on the merits and standing of any particular installment), and just a general comment on something I found interesting, but tangential to the thread topic.

To avoid any misunderstanding, I do still immensely enjoy Temple of Doom. I similarly enjoy Crystal Skull, for that matter; it's just the installment I rank lowest in an overall franchise I love and adore on the whole, and also happens to be one I find has certain thematic and narrative connections to the other two that aren't there with Temple.
 

Dr. Gonzo

New member
The Drifter said:
1-Temple of Doom
2-Last Crusade
3-Raiders of the Lost Ark
4-Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
That's an interesting list. Raiders being at spot three.
Nice to see variety. The Drifter is the spice of life.
Kingdom will always be last though. Always. :hat:
 
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