Rank The Indiana Jones Films

[Living Shadow]

I recently got the boxed set on Blu-ray with all four of these and it got me in the mood to rank them. There seem to be quite a few Indy fans around here which is awesome to see, one of my favorite series ever. Rank all four of them in your order of preference. My order is quite controversial and unconventional, but it goes:


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


Bear in mind I love all of them in their own way and I actually tend to rotate on Last Crusade and Crystal Skull for third and fourth place respectively (wouldn't be surprised if they switch around next time I watch the series, they're all so close for me). I think Raiders is the best of the series in a lot of ways but I find TOD the most entertaining. Overall though it's a high-quality series that's maintained consistantly good quality throughout all four. If we get another hopefully it'll be another good addition.

[Amazing Kitsune]

The Last Crusade
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Temple of Doom

[Kevin Hamilton]

Raiders
Crusade
Temple
Skull

[mcmahonfan85]

1. Last Crusade
2. Raiders of the Lost Ark
3. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
4. Not watching an Indiana Jones movie
5. Temple of Doom (this is the only movie in history that i have found so unbelievably annoying that even after multiple tries i have never managed to watch half of it let alone the whole thing)

[Big DSR Energy]

I grew up having never watched an Indiana Jones movie. I saw all of them when Crystal Skull came out. My order is probably:

1. Temple
2. Raiders
3. Crusade
4. Skull

[Hit Girl]

1- Raiders
2- Crusade
3- Temple


There is no fourth film

[Goldenbane]

1. Temple of Doom: I love this movie. I love the dark atmosphere, I love the sidekicks, I love the villain, I LOVE this film! This movie is just different and refreshing. Short Round is a fun character, but not so awesome that he ever outshines Indiana Jones. Willy is extremely annoying...and that's great, not every damn female character has to be a badass full of confidence warrior goddess, sometimes the cowardly damsels in distress are better to have! Mola Rom is unforgettable, his bald tattooed head, his skull hat, ect...very fearsome villain.

2. The Last Crusade: Great movie and sometimes I flip flop this with Temple. Sean Connery is great as Indy's dad...and like Short Round, he gets to be fun but doesn't overshadow Indiana Jones. The scene with the knight's temple and the knight himself, Indy meeting Hitler, and the return of Sallah, and the search for Dr. Jones' book are all great and fun moments. The villains...with the exception of Elsa, are more forgettable in this movie (as in, without looking on Wikipedia, I can't remember their names that well...but I remember well the stuff each of them did) but otherwise they are great.

3. Raiders of the Lost Arc: *Sigh* I hate putting his movie as number three, because that makes it seem like I don't like it...but I LOVE this movie! It started everything after all! I just find things about Temple and Crusade more enjoyable to my personal tastes. The "sword fight" scene, Marion Ravenwood, and Arnold Toht, stick out most to me. Like Crusade, the villains are forgettable (again, their names are hard for me to remember without Wikipedia, specifically Toht, whom I usually describe as "that guy with the glasses all in black who burns his hand" rather than remember his name, and not what they do) but I can forgive that as they are mostly off screen and Indy is chasing them or running/hiding from them.

4. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: Now this...this is a bad movie. I realize that there are tv shows, cartoons, games, parodies, books, and all this other crap that feature Indiana Jones looking for stuff...but I wouldn't have minded them just saying "screw it" and making a movie version of something he "already did in some book." They really didn't have to go with the aliens crap. That just screamed "George Lucas wanted this" more than anything to me. Sticking with the religion theme of the other movies, maybe Indy could have gone after an Islamic artifact, or going with the Commies maybe a Russian item. They could have gone after Atlantis or El Dorado (The City of Gold) or the Fountain of Youth or the spear of destiny or maybe the Egyptian and South American pyramids themselves that held some unknown thing. No, they went with the f***ing aliens, and of course when they find the aliens, it's that same boring stupid ass looking grey douchebag that we've all seen a billion times, who then proceeds to kill the villain for no reason at all. The side characters are all pretty annoying, even Marion this time around. Humorously enough the one scene that everyone complains about is the one scene that I thought was clever and kinda cool (Nuke the fridge). I should stop here or all go on and on about how much I hate Skull.

[Living Shadow]

The aliens bothered me at first about KOTCS but overtime I grew more comfortable with it, though I still am not too fond of the whole UFO bit near the end.

[Jiren]

1. Crusade
2. Raiders
3. Temple

[Deleted]

1. The Last Crusade was the best film and should have been the last film. It always makes me laugh in the scene: Indy is escaping on a motorbike with his dad in the side car. He is grinning but notices Connery giving him a disapproving look and bows his head. My dad gives us all that same look and we react the same way.

2. Raiders of the Lost Ark: Great film with fantastic moments.

3. Temple of Doom: Its a good movie, but seems a bit dated now days.

I have never seen the 4th movie and have no plans to ever see it.

[Johnny]

Temple
Raiders
Crusade
Kingdom

Temple wins for the opening crowd alone.

[Mighty Attack Tribble]

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark.
2. Last Crusade.
3. Kingdom of the Crustal Skull.
4. Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (not a movie, but I'm counting them).

Temple of Doom doesn't even get on the list for me. The only thing even remotely bearable for me about it is the score.

[DiBiase is Good]

The order in which they were released.

[The Unconquered Sun]

The last crusade
Raiders of the lost ark
Temple of doom
The crystal skull, as a nation we must remember this happened to make sure nothing like it ever happens again.

[bob]

Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Last Crusade, Temple of Doom, Kingdom of Crystal Skull.

[mizerable]

In the order of release.

Raiders is easily my all time favorite movie ever.

I'm glad that Temple was radically different, because if Crusade for example was released in 84, people would bitch it was too similar to Raiders.

Crusade is also good, but you can tell they were toning a lot of the violence down. At least it was a nice wrap up considering we get answers to all the questions about Indy.

Skulls was incrediby disappointing. The first half was okay, but there was way too much implausible action and it felt like it was going through the motions. Again, the violence was toned down way too much and I hated the return of Marion.

[Hassan bin Sober]

1. Temple
2. Crusade
3. Raiders
4. Crystal Skull (and I didn't hate it like many others)

[SkullTrauma]

this thread looks awfully familiar. i still agree with your order, TC..except for Crystal Skull, which i still haven't seen since we chatted a few days ago.

[Biggtone23]

Crusade
Ark
Doom
Skulls

[Living Shadow]

May 10, 2014 10:04:58 GMT -5 mizerable said:

I'm glad that Temple was radically different, because if Crusade for example was released in 84, people would bitch it was too similar to Raiders.

Me too, I always enjoyed the much darker tone and that it had a totally different mythology, set of enemies and was an all-new adventure. Last Crusade was entertaining but it felt too much like the first movie to me.