Indiana Jones 2 and 4: why the drop in quality?

[UniSol GR77]

Indiana & the Temple of Doom:

No plot, no good dialogues, but iconic last parts.
Especially the bridge sequence, it's a legendary scene.... impressive.
But the movie is so childish. No plot, no story, I don't like the dialogues at all and Indy looks VERY out of character.
The humour is so cliché and overdone in this, especially Kate's. Tons of scenes where she is afraid of wild animals and insects. Jesus...
Most of the action in the titular temple is a bit weak and tired. Children fighting skilled warriors... oh God.
But I love this regardless, it's an iconic and fun movie. Still, it's vastly inferior to Part 1 and 3. Vastly.

Indiana & the Crystal Skull:

Just a terrible mess from start to finish. Still fun and enjoyable, but this movie makes look TEMPLE like 'The Dark Knight' or 'Citizen Kane'.

What was Spielberg thinking???

[JamesBenjamin]

I think you're going to find that people rank 2 the best, followed by 1, then 3, then 4.

Honestly, the main problem with 4 is that they left Christian mythology behind and did aliens. That and the fridge bit. If they had left out the fridge bit and had him looking for the fountain of youth instead, it would have worked much better. So to answer your questions: script issues.

[UniSol GR77]

Originally Posted by JamesBenjamin

I think you're going to find that people rank 2 the best, followed by 1, then 3, then 4.

.

Really? In America? Jesus...

[Ernest Rister]

Originally Posted by UniSol GR77

Indiana & the Temple of Doom:

No plot, no good dialogues, but iconic last parts.
Especially the bridge sequence, it's a legendary scene.... impressive.
But the movie is so childish. No plot, no story, I don't like the dialogues at all and Indy looks VERY out of character.
The humour is so cliché and overdone in this, especially Kate's. Tons of scenes where she is afraid of wild animals and insects. Jesus...
Most of the action in the titular temple is a bit weak and tired. Children fighting skilled warriors... oh God.
But I love this regardless, it's an iconic and fun movie. Still, it's vastly inferior to Part 1 and 3. Vastly.

Couldn't POSSIBLY disagree more. Last Crusade turns Indiana Jones from the rough-edged, Bogart-tinged rugged survivor willing to do almost anything, even kill, to obtain the Ark or save the stolen children and the Sankara Stones...into a boy scout. Literally. Marcus is turned into a clueless idiot, Sallah into a bumbling Egyptian stereotype and when he's not rounding up camels he's saying things like, "Indy! Your father is trapped in the belly of that steel beast!" The best digger in Cairo can't say the word, "tank"? The screenplay is cheap, a structural copy of Raiders, and goes for easy laughs, Spielberg looks like he's on autopilot.

Temple of Doom is glorious. Spielberg is on fire with masterful choreography and energy, from beginning to end. Characters pop off the screen, John Williams delivers one of his best scores, the film has drive and unique action set pieces and is unlike anything I've seen before or since.

Indiana & the Crystal Skull:

What was Spielberg thinking???

"Maybe now George will shut up about this movie." ???

[UniSol GR77]

Originally Posted by Ernest Rister

Temple of Doom is glorious. Spielberg is on fire with masterful choreography and energy, from beginning to end. Characters pop off the screen, John Williams delivers one of his best scores, the film has drive and unique action set pieces and is unlike anything I've seen before or since.

I can only say cinematography is wonderful and direction delivers the best. Some of the action in the cave feels tired and clumsy. Said that, I respectfully disagree about the story, the plot and the character development.

[Arch Stanton]

Originally Posted by tigermoth

I only like Raiders myself. The only one I revisit every now and then.

Agreed. The rest are pretty bad.

[Nada]

Originally Posted by Ernest Rister

Couldn't POSSIBLY disagree more. Last Crusade turns Indiana Jones from the rough-edged, Bogart-tinged rugged survivor willing to do almost anything, even kill, to obtain the Ark or save the stolen children and the Sankara Stones...into a boy scout. Literally. Marcus is turned into a clueless idiot, Sallah into a bumbling Egyptian stereotype and when he's not rounding up camels he's saying things like, "Indy! Your father is trapped in the belly of that steel beast!" The best digger in Cairo can't say the word, "tank"? The screenplay is cheap, a structural copy of Raiders, and goes for easy laughs, Spielberg looks like he's on autopilot.

Temple of Doom is glorious. Spielberg is on fire with masterful choreography and energy, from beginning to end. Characters pop off the screen, John Williams delivers one of his best scores, the film has drive and unique action set pieces and is unlike anything I've seen before or since.

A-f**king-men!

Last Crusade is by far the least of all four films. The saving grace is the Connery/Ford chemistry, the tank battle, and the Nazi henchmen. It's too cookie-cutter compared to the first two. Crystal Skull is massively underrated. Such a fun film in every capacity.

[Doctor Jack]

Temple of Doom is ridiculously good. You can judge if someone has good or bad taste by whether they like it or not.

[UniSol GR77]

Originally Posted by Doctor Jack

Temple of Doom is ridiculously good. You can judge if someone has good or bad taste by whether they like it or not.

From a technical standpoint, yes, it is a good/great movie.

You're talking with someone who loves 'Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome' to the nth degree.

[Mr. Chaverria]

Raiders is the best. Hands down.

2 though hits some bumps but the direction is still amazing. Short Round and the kids doing their thing doesn't impact it. It actually hammers in what kinds of films Spielberg was trying to emulate. Seriously... watch some old serials. Stuff like that happened. I typically hate children in films but wasn't annoyed w/ this. Willie Scott... yeah. That's a rough patch no matter what. Nice intro to her though. The film also doesn't really make sense cuz if ToD is before Raiders.. then why does Raiders have Indy as more of skeptic of mystical nonsense? The narrative has a lot of little issues.

I LOVE Last Crusade cuz it was my introduction to Indy. It's my favorite. But it also waters down so much. We didn't need to know why Ford/Indy has that scar, has that hat type, hates snakes, etc. It does have a neat little visual segue to adult Indy. But it's very pointless to have that sequence to sum up so much of the man in one event as a kid. Marcus Brody is a bumbling fool. Etc. etc.

It's just a very lazy film in narrative. I love it but it's flawed to hell. Still a fun film though.

Originally Posted by UniSol GR77

From a technical standpoint, yes, it is a good/great movie.

You're talking with someone who loves 'Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome' to the nth degree.

I'm willing to give MM3 a pass though. It didn't seem like a film that Miller should have done considering where he was in that mindset of his at that time. Sucks to lose a friend. He continued on though. Great action and some good scenes. It's just a very fractured thing. Still enjoyable somewhat to me.

[V2David]

I won't argue with you that Raiders is the best, but Temple of Doom is my favorite. Sorry you found it to be a drop in quality, but a lot of people love this movie.

Indy4 was an abomination.

[Blu-Benny]

Temple of Doom is a great flick......even #4 has it's moments.

[Chloenator]

Originally Posted by UniSol GR77

Really? In America? Jesus...

Yes, I'm from America and I like part 2 the best. I would rank them like this: 2, 1, 3, 4

[UniSol GR77]

My rank is: 1, 3, 2............ and 4.

[Nada]

Raiders/Temple
Crystal Skull
Last Crusade

[Foggy]

Originally Posted by Doctor Jack

Temple of Doom is ridiculously good. You can judge if someone has good or bad taste by whether they like it or not.

Preach it son!

[The Great Owl]

I rank the Indiana Jones movies in the order of release.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is awesome, and it's my second favorite behind Raiders of the Lost Ark.

[imsounoriginal]

Temple of Doom is excellent. In spite of its "jokes" about Indian culture it's still an incredibly fun and entertaining movie. Crystal Skull has its problems but I enjoy that one, too, I just don't watch it very often. Frankly if I was to rank the series it would be in release order.

[Member-244966]

Indy is my favourite film series of all time. I love all four films, and Last Crusade is my second favourite movie of all time. I would however agree that Temple and Crystal Skull are the weakest

[Mr. Chaverria]

The ranking quality of the films is pretty much the release order.

The entertainment value may be something else though. As it is w/ me.

1
3
2
4.