All 5 Indiana Jones Movies Ranked from Worst to Best
Indiana Jones is one of the most iconic action heroes of all time. But which of his adventures reigns supreme and which does not? Below are ALL the Indiana Jones movies ranked from worst to best.
#5 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
I put Temple of Doom at the bottom of this list. Okay – yes there are some great moments in this movie. That is undeniable. It’s an Indiana Jones movie, after all – so how could it be bad? But say what you want about weird aliens (that aren’t really aliens, by the way) – I’ll take aliens any day over blood drinking devil worshipers.
The problem with Temple of Doom is not that it’s a bad movie – to me it just doesn’t feel enough like an Indiana Jones movie. Unlike every other Jones movie, we never see Indy in his natural habitat – no, not falling, crashing, fighting his way to survival/shiny artifact. I’m talking about his university.
I don’t think we know how much time Indy actually spends at his day job versus field work. But my guess would be that the majority of his time is actually probably spent at school. After all, he is a teacher, right?
Doom forsakes this side of the character and seems to want to make him into an action hero minus the intellectual nuance that really makes him special. Also, unlike the rest of the movies on this list, Doom is probably the only one that doesn’t really add anything to Indiana’s character. We already know he’s a bad-ass archaeologist.
All in all, the movie feels like an extended version of the opening scene of Raiders. It’s almost like Lucas and Spielberg got together and thought to themselves “what would it be like if we took everything that makes Indiana Jones who he is out of the movie and just left in that opening scene stuff from the first movie? Yeah. I think that will work.”
It’s still a good movie. It’s just not the best.
#4 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Sometimes reboots end up being better than the originals. Christopher Nolan’s Batman, for example, is hard to compete with. But most of the time, reboots just aren’t so great. They often rely on the fact that the audience already knows the characters, and the are familiar with the source material. They don’t have to breathe creative new life into something like Indiana Jones that people will line up in droves to see no matter the plot.
With that being said, Crystal Skull is not a bad reboot. In fact, despite the angry fans who dislike it (to put it mildly), I would even say it’s a pretty good movie. Sure, there are some less good parts. The thing with the monkeys is weird. And I guess Kate Blanchett’s accent isn’t great. But all-in-all, Crystal Skull stays true to the heart and soul of Indiana Jones.
One aspect of the rebooted movie that I like in particular is that they actually allowed Indiana’s character to develop. He doesn’t feel like an older man pretending to be young. He’s just older Indiana Jones. He reacts to things the way an older Indiana Jones would react to them. Like he doesn’t freak out when he hears he has a kid. The younger Indiana Jones probably would have run the other way.
Allowing Jones to mature as a character and even get married adds further depth to him as a character. Even Indian Jones had to grow up some day (he’s just a late bloomer).
#3 Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Despite not doing well at the box office (sort of incredible for an Indiana Jones Movie), Dial of Destiny captures the original spirit of the Indiana Jones movies we know and love. Sure, it has its negative parts. The whole opening scene with a CGI young Indiana Jones fails to ever really feel really human, and we don’t know what happened to the bad guy after he hit his head on a pole on a train at incredibly high speeds, and Wombat as a grown up is pretty unlikeable, but there’s a lot of heart in this movie.
Indiana Jones is allowed to grow old, and struggle with bigger questions in life than just those pertaining to ancient artifacts. It’s a fitting (probably) end to Harrison Ford’s legendary run as this character, and worth the visit to the Cinema to see.
#2 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Last Crusade is basically a remake of Raiders of the Lost Arc but with Sean Connery. And that makes all the difference you could need. I don’t know how they got the idea to bring Indy’s daddy into this one – but the decision was wonderful. Last Crusade ends up being as much fun and almost as good as Raiders. Still, a few moments (like that time Adolf signed Jones’s daddy’s diary) are a little silly and superfluous. But hey – the creators didn’t have anything to prove and they obviously had fun making this one.
Speaking of character development, besides getting to know where Indiana’s fear of snakes, his cut chin, his favorite hat and penchant for a bullwhip come from, my favorite bit of character development happens at the end when (spoiler alert) Indy is reaching for the Holy Grail and his dad finally calls him by his preferred name for the first time: Indiana.
When they leave the cave, his dad reverts to calling Indy “Junior”, to which Indiana finally begrudgingly doesn’t argue.
#1 Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Arc
What’s there really to say about this one other than it’s awesome. Raiders is the best Indiana Jones movie, and also one of the best movies of all time. It’s wonderfully paced, ingenious, iconic, and groundbreaking.
Sometimes, first is also best.
