I recently decided to watch the three original Indiana Jones movies. I have been a big fan of Lucas’s previous original trilogies, so I decided to give this one a go. I did not watch the movies in order, instead choosing to go the unconventional route of 2,1,3, but I doubt this changed my rating of each movie. Despite, my ratings of the movies, all three were very watchable, and I would recommend you watch the trilogy, it’s definitely worth your time.
Temple of Doom: The Temple of Doom was the first movie of the trilogy I watched, and it made me consider skipping the rest. The Temple of Doom misses out on important parts of the movie: Indie being a cool professor as well as the Nazi’s. The movie was so boring that my viewing partner actually fell asleep and I was close to passing out. However, the movie was still enjoyable enough that I stayed awake. Overall I give Temple of Doom a 3/10 because it was boring a lot of the time, and Short Round was a super racist character that made me cringe every time he spoke.
Raiders of the Lost Ark: This movie was shockingly good. After, watching it I understood people love of the series. I felt like I was right beside Indie as he trudged through piles of snakes, and discovered artifacts better off not recovered. The movie is very old, but luckily much like in Star Wars, most of the film was practical, which made it easy to watch. Any CGI parts were so old that they went well with the movie’s style of comedy. The movie itself was also very funny, I laughed out loud at multiple points, and that’s a rare occurrence, especially during an action movie. I also began to understood a lot of pop culture references. Indie has definitely influenced our modern culture and even just watching Raiders of the Lost Ark opened my eyes to a lot more cinematic easter eggs. Overall I gave the film a 9/10 for punching Nazi’s and shooting guys with swords.
Last Crusade: The Last Crusade was much more faithful to Indiana Jones then the second movie. In fact the movie seemed to be a bit of a shameless remake, but I still liked it. It had Nazi’s, cool professor Jones, ancient Christian artifacts, melting guys, and of course creepy animals and insects. The Last Crusade once again made me feel for Indie and made him appear like someone I really wanted to be. Much like all great movies, it seriously made me reconsider my life. I eventually decided two things, one that being a treasure hunter probably doesn’t pay much, and two that I really liked this movie. Overall I would give The Last Crusade a 7.5/10 It wasn’t as good as the original, but still a fantastic movie.
By: Harrison Fuller