MaxPhactor23 said:
Much like Blade Runner, time was good to Temple of Doom. From my personal experience, I rarely ever hear negative about it (as a whole) anymore. In fact I have quite a few friends that consider it their favorite of the films, myself included. While I would never say it's the best Indiana Jones film, it would be my favorite. Simultaneously, in my personal life I encounter few that actually liked Crystal Skull beyond a guilty pleasure bad movie. That’s not to say its fans aren’t out there or that Doom is thespian drama, but just from my point-of-view Skull has been significantly viewed as the black sheep amongst the majority. You also have your public movie review sites (IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes) that agree, scoring Doom higher than Skull, which I would consider (everyone outside of pretty much the Raven) casual fans average opinion. To me that really speaks volumes as far as the Indiana Jones community and the casual theatre audience goes, but I’m not so sure Doom ever had the fan base as divided as Skull, meaning I’m not so certain it’ll ever become received with age. That’s not to say Skull was despised either, but I think it’s safe in saying its quality was (at best) considered questionably lesser than the others on the average.
I still disagree...
I think people see TOD as harder of a film to digest, whereas KOTCS is a little easier.
I've read countless YouTube comments, countless message boards (I've done way too many "Rate the Indy Films" on IMDB's Film General Board), listened to dozens of reviews on YouTube and other sites, and just regular reviews period, plus the people I know in my community. And I don’t see people always choosing TOD over KOTCS. Usually a good majority will rate KOTCS better than TOD. It’s sometimes a close margin in how close they rank next to eachother, though.
Like I said before:
"I even remember most reviews, and even YouTube or Blog reviews from fans saying "At least it's better than TOD!" or "In comparision to the OT, it sits right above TOD and just before LC." or lastly; "It is better than TOD, thankfully!""
And RottenTomatoes and especially IMDB are not the be-all-end-all for film opinions...RottenTomatoes also has only a few reviews for each of the OT, thus doubling their chances of a higher rating. And IMDB...look at it's Top 250 which has The Dark Knight rated over Casablanca or ROTLA. And I'm a huge Batman fan, saying that. Even IMDB's users don't take the site's ratings seriously.
Regardless, with hard-cores and causals, KOTCS and TOD will always be the bottom 2 with most people, and they will usually flip-flop depending on who you're asking. Whether we like it or not.
Believe me I don't feel that great saying this, cause I love TOD.