skyjedi2005 said:
Some of the more jokey slapstick type things in doom and crusade i enjoyed as a kid but they annoy me to no end as an adult. I appreciate Raiders far more because it treats the material seriously. While the next films tried to make a fun rollercoaster ride. Once the material is treated in camp and self mockery it no longer works.

I don't see why Indiana jones films should take themselves seriously. I think Indy films trying to take themselves seriously is rather misguided and futile. Indiana Jones is RIDICULOUS and taking it seriously is pointless. That doesn't mean they should go off the deep end and take out all sense of threat. And while there's no point in taking it seriously as in keeping the straight face avoiding the silly stuff, there should some taking it seriously in the sense of doing it like they mean it. That's where Crystal Skull failed. Crusade had all sorts of silly stuff, but they still meant it for real a lot. The combination of them meaning it along with the humor worked well. Whereas in Crystal Skull nothing was for real and thus it doesn't really touch you much emotionally. There's a difference between Crusade (or Doom) and Crystal Skull and that's the difference between a good Indy movie and a plastic one.

Crusade and Doom weren't just more fun than Raiders, they were better at the serious stuff too. There was more sense of threat in their villains and situations and settings and more feeling in their character interactions. There was just so much more to those two films. They don't belong lumped with the bland artificiality of Crystal Skull.