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Rank The Indiana Jones Films

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Surely there's Indy fans here, being the other major Lucas property. One of my all-time favorite film series along with SW and I'm in a minority of fans who loves them all, even the much-hated Crystal Skull. How do you rank all four in order of preference? My ranking is probably quite controversial but it goes:

Temple Of Doom

Raiders Of The Lost Ark

Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull

The Last Crusade

I think Raiders is the best in a lot of ways but I find TOD the most entertaining. TOD gets a ton of flack but I love it for the much darker, harsher tone and Horror elements of it, and it's many great setpieces and action. I actually like Last Crusade and Crystal Skull about the same and alternate on them, but I find lately I like KOTCS a little better. Last Crusade is great but too similar to Raiders and too jokey at times for my liking, but it's still awesome. I often feel alone in thinking all four are excellent.

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Temple of Doom

Raiders of the lost ark

Last crusade

There I ranked all three films.

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Raiders of the Lost Ark

“First feel fear, then get angry. Then go with your life into the fight.” - Bill Mollison

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 (Edited)

Raiders of the Lost Ark

The Mummy

The Mummy II

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

“That Darth Vader, man. Sure does love eating Jedi.”

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Temple of Doom & Last Crusade -- a tie, more-or-less

Raiders of the Lost Ark

[big, honking gap]

Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

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1. Raiders of the Lost Ark

2. Last Crusade

3. Temple of Doom

4. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Anyone who ranks any other way is just wrong, wrong, wrong.

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ATMachine said:

Raiders of the Lost Ark

The Mummy

The Mummy II

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

 Yep, The Mummy films were closer to the "Raiders of the Lost Ark" style then any of the films with Indiana Jones in their title.

“First feel fear, then get angry. Then go with your life into the fight.” - Bill Mollison

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Just watched all four last week, so it pleases me to see this thread.  I agree in my ranking with DominicCobb, but I also agree with the OP in that all four are good films.  My least favorite is KOTCS, but I appreciate it for what it is.  It was meant to focus on the fascination with sci-fi during the 50s, with flying saucers and Area 51.  I'm okay with that.  I like its lighter tone, its humor, its self-deprecation.

And IMO, the Mummy films are moderately enjoyable, but don't even approach Indiana Jones in style or enjoyability.

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darth_ender said:

Just watched all four last week, so it pleases me to see this thread.  I agree in my ranking with DominicCobb, but I also agree with the OP in that all four are good films.  My least favorite is KOTCS, but I appreciate it for what it is.  It was meant to focus on the fascination with sci-fi during the 50s, with flying saucers and Area 51.  I'm okay with that.  I like its lighter tone, its humor, its self-deprecation.

And IMO, the Mummy films are moderately enjoyable, but don't even approach Indiana Jones in style or enjoyability.

 I completely disagree with you on KOTCS.   It is so bad, that I don't consider it part of the cannon.   It is a movie that should have never been made.  

Here is my rankings:

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark

2. Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade

3. Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom

666. Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull.

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The order in which they came out. I like aspects of last crusade better than temple, but temple of doom was a much more visually interesting film.

"The other versions will disappear. Even the 35 million tapes of Star Wars out there won’t last more than 30 or 40 years. A hundred years from now, the only version of the movie that anyone will remember will be the DVD version [of the Special Edition], and you’ll be able to project it on a 20’ by 40’ screen with perfect quality. I think it’s the director’s prerogative, not the studio’s to go back and reinvent a movie." - George Lucas

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 (Edited)

1. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
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2. Raiders of the Lost Ark
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3. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
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4. Young Sherlock Holmes and the Pyramid of Fear
5. Les Aventures Extraordinaires D'Adèle Blanc-Sec
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6. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

The first two just get better and better as I get older but Last Crusade seems a little weak now IMO. The 4th was never any good and only gets worse.

VIZ TOP TIPS! - PARENTS. Impress your children by showing them a floppy disk and telling them it’s a 3D model of a save icon.

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Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is like a flat soda. It's all the right ingredients, but time ruined it.

I'm not saying a film with an old Indy was doomed from the beginning, I just think it should've been made before George Lucas got lazy.

"The other versions will disappear. Even the 35 million tapes of Star Wars out there won’t last more than 30 or 40 years. A hundred years from now, the only version of the movie that anyone will remember will be the DVD version [of the Special Edition], and you’ll be able to project it on a 20’ by 40’ screen with perfect quality. I think it’s the director’s prerogative, not the studio’s to go back and reinvent a movie." - George Lucas

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ATMachine said:

Raiders of the Lost Ark

The Mummy

The Mummy II

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

 

Strange you should mention The Mummy films, this past weekend I actually mixed The Mummy films in with the Indy films. Had a lot of fun marathoning them together, The Mummy makes for a good companion piece to the Indy films.

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darth_ender said:

Just watched all four last week, so it pleases me to see this thread.  I agree in my ranking with DominicCobb, but I also agree with the OP in that all four are good films.  My least favorite is KOTCS, but I appreciate it for what it is.  It was meant to focus on the fascination with sci-fi during the 50s, with flying saucers and Area 51.  I'm okay with that.  I like its lighter tone, its humor, its self-deprecation.

And IMO, the Mummy films are moderately enjoyable, but don't even approach Indiana Jones in style or enjoyability.

 Completely agree with everything you said.

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I rank them in order of release. I really quite enjoy TOD, it's such a goofy fun B-movie adventure. I highly recommend Infodroid's fanedits of TOD and LC as well.

Don’t do drugs, unless you’re with me.

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ID's edit of Temple of Doom is great.  I never bothered with his edit of Last Crusade because I like that movie on its own.

KotCS was saved by a couple of good edits, both Q2's and njvc's.

Oh, and reading people's lists is generally really boring.

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How would I go about seeing ID's edit of Temple of Doom?

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Wow, I have an entirely different ranking than anyone so far:

The Last Crusade

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Temple of Doom

I actually saw The Last Crusade first of all the films, and as it opens with Indy's backstory, I always just assumed that it was the first in the series (the Ark reference confused me at the time!). People say it's weak, but I thought Connery was excellent as the father, and the entire Grail quest is enthralling. And the music!

Anyway, If I'd watched Raiders first as a kid, I probably would have ranked it highest. But as I was spoiled by the effects of Crusade, this didn't have as big an effect on me as Crusade.

I went to see KOTCS in the theater, and distinctly remember giving the above ranking to all the movies upon leaving. There are some atrocious moments in the film, like Shia swinging on vines, but overall it was different enough from the others to be interesting, something that I cannot say of Temple of Doom.

Temple of Doom is the pits. I don't care about the opening dance number, the inflatable raft escape is laughably absurd, the magic stones are parochial and dull, Short Round is annoying, Willie Scott is more so. It is thoroughly unpleasant throughout, gross for the sake of being gross, cruel (child slavery?!) for the sake of being cruel, and justly deserves the scorn shown to movie prequels on these forums.

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)

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Warbler said:

How would I go about seeing ID's edit of Temple of Doom?

 fanedit.info

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Raiders is clearly first

Last Crusade second

Temple Of Doom close third (maybe a tie)

Crystal Skull distant fourth, probably shouldn't count, even though it's not as bad as it's reputation suggests.

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I think the problem is if one movie sets a tone, we expect the whole franchise to follow that tone. It's certainly not a great film, but KOTCS is light and different, and I really don't mind that. Above all else, my main complaint was Mac, whom we hardly got to know before he betrayed Indy, and therefore it carried absolutely no emotional weight when he did. If I can buy the Ark frying a bunch of Nazis, an evil priest ripping out hearts and the victim surviving, or a cup aging someone hundreds of years in an instant, I can overlook the survival of a nuclear blast in a fridge.  It's all fantasy anyway.

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 (Edited)

The Ark and that cup were no ordinary objects, in the Indiana Jones universe, they pocessed special powers.  As for the the guy ripping out hearts, maybe he had very sharp finger nails?  The fridge had no mystical magical powers. It stretched the line of believability beyond the breaking point.  At least it dig for me.  Also imho, aliens have no place in an Indiana Jones movie.

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Warbler said:

As for the the guy ripping out hearts, maybe he had very sharp finger nails?

Seemed more like an example of psychic surgery to me.