Rank The Indiana Jones Saga

I know what you mean. I think in many ways Raiders is truly the best, but TOD is the one I find most entertaining. Both even out for me in that regard.

 

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

To me, this is the clear ranking. A significant gap between each one. Love Raiders, like Crusade, Doom is okay, and Skull sucks.

 

As films I'd go:

Raiders
Temple of Doom
Last Crusade
Crystal Skull

but my younger self would be Temple all the way.

 

I've seen some rank the Young Indy series in with the films. It's been so long since I last watched any YI, but I'd love to re-visit the series, someday.

 

I'm actually revisiting these shows on Netflix right now. It's interesting, but would've loved to have seen more characters from the movies show up(Abner and Marion Ravenwood, Marcus Brody, Belloq...though Paul Freeman does show up, lol)

 

I guess since the show is set a number of years before the events of the films, it would've been difficult fitting in film canon characters.

 

Young Indy is like the prequels - I love the concept and pretty much end up liking the series, while being aware of its flaws.

It's supposed to be about Indy progressing from wide-eyed idealist to cynical bruiser (from River Phoenix to Harrison Ford), but it was a little uneven in how it got there. He does, over time, acquire more experience and knowledge, but there was never a point where I looked at him and said "all right, NOW he's Harrison Ford." Maybe it's just me.

The ages at which we see him. I wish they'd done less "Indy as child" and more "Indy as grad student" instead. Maybe they were going to and never got a chance, but yeah -watching him finally sink his teeth into archaeology for real (and presumably meet Abner and Marion) would've been a lot more interesting than many of his childhood stories.

Henry Jones Sr. ... not enough fun. I can totally see that actor going "that's for blasphemy." I can't see him going "she talks in her sleep." Old Henry had a mischievous and fun side to him that never came out in the series. Maybe that makes sense, though, since he wouldn't have shown it around his kid, who would only have seen the strict disciplinarian side of him, so it doesn't bother me as much.

What I DID like: unlike (I gather from IMDb and other places) many people, the "Indy experiences history" thing totally works for me. Indy as a period piece is one of my favorite things about it - the trilogy being set on the eve of World War Two and in that context is one of the things that makes it stand out from more ordinary tomb raider stories. I also like that they didn't turn it into a magical-artifact-of-the-week story where Indy's basically always having another adventure like he had in the movies (one of the reasons I never got into the Indy novelverse is because every book seems to be like that).

Liked Remi as a companion, liked most of the war episodes (as with Clone Wars there were a few that had me groaning, but only a few), thought they did a great job of maintaining the basic adventure mood of the movies.

"More characters from the movies?" Eh... depends, I guess. Marcus Brody should definitely have been included. Abner and Marion... yes, but that's part of the broader "I wish we'd seen more of him studying archaeology and getting into the business" problem, since Abner was his mentor.

 

I'll definitely seek the series out one of these days. I'm surprised I never watched it much back then but then again I guess I was too into other things at that time (plus that was also more or less the same time I really got into SW).

 

You'd think Brody would have at least got mentioned somewhere. Abner Ravenwood and Belloq were intended to show up in the third season but the ratings didn't allow it to get that far.

Would have been nice to get an episode dealing with Indy's mother's death in there too.

That's my feeling as well. In a way, I think the series suffered because it wasn't chronological so you get Flanery as either having to be jaded by the war or having comedy spy adventures. The focus more on that week's theme rather than character development. Shame the series never got to a point where we see Indy caring less about sharing knowledge with the fortune and glory creeping in before Temple of Doom pulls him back from becoming Belloq.

 

All those Indy topics make me want to re-watch the series, as it's been some years since I've last seen it (and still haven't gathered up the courage to watch KOTCS).
I may be the only one here to say that, but I always like Raiders least -I always assumed that it was due to the fact that it was the last one I saw. I loved TLC and TOD for years before I saw Raiders and was a bit.. disappointed.
so that 16-year-old me would say:
Temple
Crusade
Raiders.

I'll update the list after revisiting the series.

 

Remember in Raiders when Indy told Marion to close her eyes and don't look at it when the Nazis opened the Ark? That's my advise regarding KOTCS.

 

Go into it with considerably lowered expectations.

 

I may have asked before (too lazy to look through the pages), but anyone ever been on the Indy ride at Disneyland? It's awesome, makes you feel like you're part of an unmade Indy film. You can find some good videos of it on YouTube. If you're an Indy fan it's worth going to Disneyland just for the ride.

 

My advice is to go in with simply no expectations at all. Having a preconceived idea of how a film will be presented will inevitably lead to disappointment

 

Definitely quite true for many films. Certainly has been with me and other films.

 

I went in to KOTCS with high expectations

 

Who didn't back then? First Indy movie in almost 20 years.

 

True. It was up there with the expectation for TPM.

 

Yeah, and look at what happened when that first Star Wars movie in 16 years came along...

Just like the PT, just like The Godfather Part III, just like Aliens 3, Crystal Skull suffered from the massive weight of expectations that was increased ridiculously by the intervening period between its predecessor(s) and its own release. Over time, beloved film series take on a mythic status, and when a new instalment dares to raise its head, the knives have already been drawn.

In some cases - most or many, let's face it - this later episode is genuinely inferior, but the vitriol directed towards it is always way out of proportion in relation to its actual failings. The simple fact of the matter is that no film in human history could be so inept, vile and offensive to deserve the utter hatred directed towards The Phantom Menace, The Godfather Part III or Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Last time I checked, none of those films contained child pornography, endangered animals being beaten to death, or any calls to action to commit hate crimes, sexual assault and terrorism. Based on some of the reactions to them, though, you'd think they did.

KotCS isn't as bad as so many say, nothing could be. Good as the trilogy from the 1980s? Hmm... nah. Still worth a look, though. Harrison Ford still plays Indiana Jones, it was directed by Steven Spielberg, John Williams did the score, what else do you want?

 

True. But those films aren't particularly great, of course they aren't horribly bad as some films I've seen. But the fact that we know everyone involved is capable of so much better is what I think makes them even more disappointing.

A good story at least.

 

Ironically, as did I. And now it's my second favourite Indy

 

Easily among the most hyped 2000s-era films for sure.

 

1 Raiders
2 Temple of Doom
3 Crystal Skull
4 Last Crusade.

 

We're among the few here who rank them that way (well, TOD and Raiders are reversed on mine).

 

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark - A
2. Indiana Jones and Last Crusade - A-
3. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom - B+
4. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - B-