I was under the impression that Temple of Doom was so poorly recieved that it almost killed the franchise. Despite some very postitive memorable elements I personally think it is the worst of the three by a decent margin. For me it's just not as enjoyable as a whole to watch as the other two, which I rank about equally.

You got there before I did. Casting a Marion Ravenswood-like knockoff would have been a retread. I still prefer Marion, but at least they did something different.

And echoing everyone else's praise for Mola Ram - scariest Indy Villain period.

That whiney, annoying Sean Connery ruined LAST for me.
He should have been more of a tough take charge man instead of .. an old whiney man.

Loved both but would favor slightly towards Temple of Doom as it retained the "serials"-type of film just like Gunga Din.

Last Crusade was great but like some have mentioned, I didn't like the fact that they made Brody out to be some kind of a retard. To think that in Raiders, Brody actually told Indy to some degree "10 years younger, I would've gone after it myself" referring to the lost ark.

Seconded.

Last Crusade for me.

Great read on that article. "nazi commander out of a Mel Brooks movie" :lol:
I never saw Crusade as another Raiders, just in content. Some similar structured scenes, Brody/Sallah, and Nazis, that's where it ends.
Temple on the other hand seems to be closer to Raiders in spirit, recapturing that certain razor-sharpness and intensity.
Another thing is the first two had exotic rough locales, Raiders had the Amazon, Egypt, Mediterranean, Temple had Shanghai and India, Crusade had blandness... Utah, Europe, and the Middle East as a suspiciously US shrub desert. Also that glum score, holy biblical stuff. Give me Temple's rousing score anytime!

Crusade, because as someone mentioned earlier, it just felt more epic. I like the idea of Indy going after historical artifacts and the hunt across continents.

Temple of Doom.

I love all three movies -- but Temple of Doom is just two-hours of non-stop ass kicking.

Temple for me, even though Kate Capshaw annoys the fuck out of me everytime she's on screen. If it wasn't for her I'd give the film 10/10, instead it just gets a 9.

How often do we see this picture when the movies are talked about, along with Raiders' opening, iconic stuff.
http://imagecache2.allposters.com/im...es-Posters.jpg

#2 has a heart but no brain. #3 has a brain but no heart. #1 has both, which I hope they can recapture in #4.

Temple I thought was much more fun.

The Last Crusade didn't have a heart? I can't disagree with that enough. Sean Connery and the father-son play filled it with heart. I'd still put Raiders #1 but I think Last Crusade was a great movie and right there with Raiders, far ahead of Temple of Doom. Also I saw something on Sean Connery yesterday, maybe on A+E, and he said something about Last Crusade being the most impressive project he was ever a part of.

Even more impressive than Zardoz?
No way!

http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/6784/zardozbb2.gif

Seems very sterile to me every time I watch it, except for the opening sequence with River Phoenix. :shrug:

(Doesn't mean I don't like it.)

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I'm watching Temple of Doom and I think it's much better than The Last Crusade.

1) Like someone else said, TOD feels more like the pulp stories/era that inspired it.
2)Non-war related villains. I never thought Indiana Jones was dependent upon war time patriotism, but instead fighting strange villains in either uncharted areas or exotic locales.
3) I'm one of the seemingly few who like Willie Scott. Not so much the way she was written but mostly for Kate Capshaw's performance.
4) One helluva opening.

I disliked Last Crusade for these reasons:

1)Retread with nazi's again.
2)Retread with holy Judeo-Christian artifact.
3)Revelation of Indiana's name and how he got the fedora, scar, and fear of snakes in just one day was a little much.
4) Sean Connery is awesome but it felt like a gimmick.

I'm shocked that Spielberg said he felt the need to apologize for Temple of Doom. Raiders and Temple are the only two Indy films I would own.

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I am not a huge fan of either sequel, as they don't come close to Raiders. But before I even look at the results I guarantee I will be in the minority saying Temple is better. I always felt Last Crusade was a total rehash of Raiders with the exception of Sean Connery, the same way Jedi was a rehash of Star Wars.

I always thought Temple was better then Crusade just because it was different (and does have its flaws), as its a dark movie, and an entertaining sequel. But I will say that Crusade has them riding off in the sunset at the end and that is a great moment! Should have never done a 4th movie for that reason alone!

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I think I have to go with this. For me, Temple didn't hold up as well.

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I find that the LAST CRUSADE is easily the Best of all 4 Indiana Jones films. Just a perfect action adventure film.

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I hardly ever watched Temple of Doom as a kid. Advantage easily goes to Last Crusade. Temple is the weakest of the first three.

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I'm not gonna bash Last Crusade, because it's great.. but Temple of Doom for me. Of all three of the movies, if I'm gonna toss something on in the background, I always go for Temple. It's just the most viscerally and visually exciting of the series. I prefer Raiders above them all, but I've just seen it so many times that when I'm jonesing for some Indy, I'll usually reach for Temple of Doom. Interestingly, I seem to remember Pauline Kael preferred Temple of Doom even over Raiders. In fact, let me go dig up her review...

Crap.. can't find it, but I did find a quote "This is one of the most sheerly pleasurable physical comedies ever made."

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While out of the original 3 my favorite is Last Crusade, it's the one I grew up watching a lot as a kid on USA especially...also fucking Sean Connery.

Raiders is the best one for sure.

Temple is 2nd best..but it's my least favorite...I just love to see Nazis get their asses kicked. I'd also add that out of the original 3 this is probably Spielberg's most daring in terms of direction.

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Definitely Temple of Doom. One of my favorite action movies.

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love love The Temple of Doom and those of my favorite series and good rest of the Indiana Jones movie series also.

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I caught some of Last Crusade on cable last night and I think it's getting worse with each passing viewing. The villains suck. The score sucks. The warmed-over Raiders plot sucks. And worst of all, what they did to Brody and Sallah sucks. There are some nice moments with Indy and Dad but even those are overshadowed by the ham-fisted comedy bits.

Five years later, and Temple of Doom still has it all over Last Crusade.

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I hate this most of all. Everyone goes on about what a buffoon they made Brody but I was even more disappointed with how they marginalized Sallah. In Raiders he was so full of life and song and he actually offered useful info and helped move the plot. In Crusade he doesn't do anything.

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The racism of ToD is too overbearing for me -- they might as well have called it Indiana Jones and the White Man's Burden. Oh, those poor, heathen darkies, they need a noble white man to save them because they're incapable of taking care of themselves. Crusade may be stupid, but at least it doesn't insult a billion people.

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Obviously Raiders is the best. When I was a kid I preferred Last Crusade, but it does feel like a retread of Raiders in a lot of ways when I watch it as an adult, and I agree about the way they portrayed Brody and Sallah feeling cheap.

Temple of Doom has its issues, the most obvious being the awful depiction of India, but it also has some of the most memorable moments in the whole series, and it's got a great arc for Indy as he goes from fortune hunter to the man we see in Raiders.

I do like Sean Connery in Last Crusade and the way he can cut Indy down with a few choice words. Also it's still cool to this day that Indy's dad is James Bond. :)

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lol, where do people like you come up with this shit? Its the PC mock outrage idiocy that a select few leveled at The Help and that sandra Bullock movie again. I actually feel kinda sorry for you.

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Hated Temple. Short Round does nothing but yell and the heart ripping scene was beyond horrible

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Short Round is freaking awesome.

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By watching the movie. It's practically a point-by-point adaptation of The White Man's Burden. Indy is "the best [we] breed" who goes to India where he encounters "sullen peoples/Half-devil [the Thugs] and half-child [the villagers]." After seeing the villager's plight he decides "To seek another's profit/And work another's gain" in "the savage war of peace" in order to "Fill full the mouth of Famine/And bid the sickness cease."

The Help, the umpteenth movie about the civil rights era told from the perspective a white person -- a white person who just happens to not be racist herself so as not to offend the sensibilities of white folk who don't want to realize that if they'd been alive at the time in the South, they would've been bitching about blacks getting to use the same bathroom as them. Yeah, that is outrageous. Why can't we have a narrative about the period that's not filtered through a white-perspective?

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I like Temple of Doom. I love Last Crusade.

The Last Crusade is darned near as good as Raiders. Every Indiana Jones movie is entertaining. Crystal Skull may be ridiculous and over the top but I still find it entertaining. The Last Crusade is clearly a notch above Temple and Crystal Skull.

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Skull, yes. Temple, no.

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I see where you're at. But to me...it's a fucking 40s pulp serial. Had everything that didn't surprise me considering it's nostalgic nature.

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There are very very poor and malnourished people in India, even now, and not just in the remote villages but in the big cities. The film doesn't shy away from that sad reality, but makes us confront it and take the underprivileged seriously. Had the film just shown Indians to be happy, and singing and dancing, THAT would've been racist because it would have whitewashed the much more sad reality that so many there live in awful poverty. Instead, it showed someone from the First World being generous and even risking his life to help them out. Isn't that what we Americans are always encouraged to do? To step out of our privileged little cocoons and lend the poor a hand?

LOL.. I suspect you're still in school and are writing a paper about this. The ivory tower is a clique of very privileged people who basically accuse everyone not in the ivory tower of being racist/sexist/homophobic/blahblahblah. When an actual Indian from India makes the case that the film is racist, I'll take it a bit more seriously.

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TOD simply because it dared to be different and not be a copy of Raiders. In fact, if you watch the movies in chronological order, RotLA, TLC, and KotCS all take the same formulaic approach. Only difference is Crystal Skull just substitutes Russians for Nazis.

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Yeah, ToD took a risk. Give that bitch some credit, yo.