Here’s how I would rank the Indiana Jones series in order of which one I think is best…

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Indy and the Crystal Skull

Indy and the Temple of Doom

Indy and the Last Crusade

 

Yep, there, I said it. I think “The Crystal Skull” is definitely ten times better than “Temple of Doom” and “The Last Crusade”. “The Crystal Skull” ranks up there behind “Raiders”.

I’m reading a lot of reviews by fans in movie message boards about the film and lot of them are shitting on and giving hate for it for the CGI and the Science Fiction mixed in with the film.

In the films defense, I wanted to say that the CGI in the film is done for a reason. Spielberg had to make every scene in the film exactly like it is in the script. Most of the scenes in the film are hard, dangerous and risky to do in real life. Plus the sci fi scenes at the end of the movie couldn’t possibly be done with anything else, CGI had to be used.

I personally think Lucas and Spielberg did a great job with the CGI in the film. Movie fans hate CGI in movies because they make it feel like a cartoon but I disagree. NEWS FLASH, it’s just a damn movie people! STOP taking it so damn seriously and just enjoy the movie for what it is! You don’t have to view your opinion in every detail in almost every little thing that goes on in the film. I just enjoy the film for what it is. Who cares about the CGI computer effects. They do CGI in a lot of movies these days. The CGI was used to give it  a realistic sci fi feel. CGI wasn’t used in the first three Indy films because CGI wasn’t invented in those days, CGI for films didn’t come around ’til around the 90’s.

The reason for all the CGI in the film, I think Spielberg just wanted to make an Indy film to fit in today’s current movies, so it won’t feel like an Indy film in the past, if that makes sense. He didn’t want to bring Indy’s past into the now.

As for the sci fi mixed in with Indy that some people out there aren’t liking. In defense to that, I think Spielberg just wanted to make this a different Indy film. He wanted this one totally different than the earlier ones. Why would he want to make an Indy movie with basically the same story from “Raiders”? Spielberg just didn’t want an Indy film based on ancient history. He thought science fiction in an Indy film would be a great idea to make it an original story, and it is “original”. Something different and unique storytelling.

And besides don’t blame Lucas and Spielberg for the script. David Koepp is the writer for “Indy 4”. Not Lucas and Spielberg. David Koepp is the one that came up with the idea for bringing sci fi into “Indy 4”. If you look at Koepp’s writing resume, he did other films such as the first “Spiderman”, “Zathura” and he previously worked on “War of the Worlds” remake with Spielberg. Those films are loaded with CGI effects and a little sci fi in them.

As explained in the review below, I loved “Crystal Skull” so much that I plan on seeing it a few more times in the theater. It’s just as good as “Raiders”, in my opinion. I might go see it again today or tomorrow as a matter of fact.

Kev