Ryan McAvoy said:

NeverarGreat said:

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

Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Temple of Doom

Melud, I move to have this ^ testimony stricken from the record. I present in evidence every frame of KOTCS. I rest my case.

Your honor, I have a closing statement. The aforementioned rankings were only my initial impression after leaving the theater where KOTCS was playing. The jury will recall that it was only upon subsequent viewing that TOD became unbearable, and so if I were to rewatch KOTCS today, it may very well become even more unbearable than that unfortunate film.

Incidentally, I think that the quality of Indiana Jones movies is skewed in favor of plots revolving around Judeo-Christian artifacts. I believe that this occurs in part because the creators of the films as well as many western viewers subscribe to some extent to such religions, and as such can more easily suspend their disbelief with regards to this material. This in turn makes it easier for everyone watching to suspend their disbelief. That is not to say that every successful Indy movie needs a Christian artifact at its core, but more work is needed for a non-Christian artifact to have such an effect on the audience. The audience would need to believe that a supernatural realm exists which transcends all individual religions and that has understandable inner workings, even if the mystery surrounding those inner workings is persistent.

In short, TOD and KOTKS largely fail for me because of a lack of reverence towards the artifacts in question, which sabotages the plots of each film and makes them seem like they take place in alternate realities, each with different rules regarding the supernatural.