Rank The Indiana Jones Saga

I always got to wonder how the remainder of the series would've been if not for the backlash to TOD. It clearly affected the remainder of the series and had a big effect on TLC.

 

To think next month KOTCS turns 10, time has flown. It's grown on me a lot since I first saw it for sure. One of those films where time heals the initial wounds of disappointment.

 

I've seen some rank in the Young Indy series with the films. The reception is very hit and miss for YIJ but I've seen some say the better episodes are good enough to be rated alongside the films. I really want to see them again but unfortunately the DVDs are way overpriced. Plus I've also heard Lucas for whatever reason omitted the bookends featuring the older Indy in the modern age, which is such a silly idea.

 

You can find a lot of them on YouTube. And yes, I agree that editing out the bookends was a dumb idea. Lucas gonna Lucas.

I like the series overall, despite some unwatchable bits. But I think Daredevils in the Desert is the only one that I'd rank at the same level as the movies. (It helps that it's a full hour and a half, which makes it feel more like a movie than the other stories).

 

Seems not even Indy is safe from Lucas' editing, unfortunately. No idea why the bookends were omitted? Seems like such an unnecessary change to make.

 

According to wikipedia, the episodes were re-edited and combined into double-lenght episodes, thus eliminating the bookends.

 

I think Lucas eliminated the bookends to give Spielberg and himself the freedom to take the character wherever they want for Indy 4 and 5 and not worry about continuity of the canon.

The Indy canon isn't as well defined or managed as Star Wars canon anyway so they have a lot more flexibility with it. I would put Young Indy in the official canon but Lucas and Spielberg have the right to overwrite aspects for the films thus making Young Indy almost "Legends" like the old Star Wars Expanded Universe. They can also do they reverse and bring elements from Young Indy and official "canonize" them within the films. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull for example explicitly referenced when Young Indy rode with Pancho Villa.

After Indy 5 I would love to see Pablo Hidalgo or someone set forth the official Indy canon. I would suspect it would the five films, the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, some of the comics, and a handful of novels. The rest like the "Find Your Fates" books would become Indiana Jones Legends.

 

When Lucas was involved, he did take Young Indy into account and the removal of the bookends and the placing of references, as you mentioned, supports that. So I would hardly call it the equivalent of Legends. It's actually more like The Clone Wars in that regard.

Now that Lucas is not part of the next film, they'll probably ignore it and/or trump over it if they feel like it.

 

Raiders of the Lost Ark - 9
Temple of Doom - 8.5
The Last Crusade - 7
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - 6

 

Pretty much exactly how I would rank them. I would give Raiders a '10' though and maybe give TOD a '9.'

I probably like TLC less than most people and KOTCS more than most people. TLC does not age well for me, and I still defend the first hour of KOTCS - but the movie just grinds to a halt when Marion shows up, unfortunately.

 

Looks like BBC1 (UK) might be running through the Indiana Jones films between Christmas and New Years. Raiders is on Dec 26 from 1:25-3:15 PM. That's as far as my TV guide goes though. However, in the past when they've done one they usually done them all.

 

I never hated KotCS. In fact, I enjoyed it when I saw it, but that was a little over ten years ago. I'm sure I'd still like it now if I saw it. It's nowhere near as good as Raiders or Last Crusade, but it's certainly better than Temple of Doom.

 

If BBC1 are running through them all I'll watch Temple at least.

 

TOD is vastly underrated imo. It's silly for sure but one of the most entertaining films ever made.

 

Indy --- Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was as good as any of them to me. I had to miss seeing it in theaters.

 

Update on the holiday viewing list for UK folks:
ToD - 27 Dec 1:30-3:20 PM
TLC - 28 Dec 1:15-3:15 PM
KotCS - 29 Dec 2:35-4:30 PM
All showings on BBC1.

 

1. Temple of Doom 10/10
2. Raiders of the Lost Ark 10/10
3. Last Crusade 9/10
4. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull 8/10

 

1. Last Crusade: 10/10
2. Raiders: 10/10
3. Temple of Doom: 8/10
4. Crystal Skull: 6/10

I liked a lot of things about Crystal Skull but I was not a fan of Mutt Williams at all. He soured a lot of that film for me.

 

1) Temple Of Doom ( First indy movie i ever saw )
2) Raiders.
3) Last Crusade.


4) Kingdom Of the whatever....

 

RotLA 10/10
TLC 8/10
KotCS 7.5/10
ToD 7/10

 

Raiders 10
TOD 9.5
TLC 9.5
KOTCS 7

 

Raiders 9.9

Temple of Doom 9.2

Last Crusade 9.2

Kingdom of the Crystal Skull 8.9


I've read lots of criticism over the alien/fantasy element in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The problem with that criticism is that all of the films have some sort of alien/religious/fantasy element in which Indy races to uncover a mythical artifact.

 

Lucasfilm used to require SW editorial applicants to also read the Indy books. That was in the 90s. The Conan license shifted back to Marvel as of this Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2019. I would like some of the multimedia to be considered official.

 

The Jock Lindsey Hangar Bar at Disneyland built after the purchase of Lucasfilm does reference a number of Indy spinoff works.

"Young Indy in the official canon but Lucas and Spielberg have the right to overwrite aspects for the films" is basically what the situation was anyway. Pancho Villa mentioned in KotCS, Indy's daughter bookend went bye-bye.