4. Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull
Woah, wait. Don't close the window. We're not jumping the shark (or nuking the fridge, boom boom) and actually suggesting that Indy 4 is a brilliant movie. We're merely saying that its reputation as an emblem of everything wrong with Hollywood's franchise resurrection model isn't totally fair. A film that feels very much like a throw-back, with a hero who can survive anything thanks to plot contrivance or poorly justified Hollywood science, boasting questionable special effects and a plain ridiculous MacGuffin that feels out of place if you're taking it all seriously. That may be how you tend to think of Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, but we were actually describing Raiders Of The Lost Ark; the film is deliberately invoking the action serials of the thirties, while the finale literally sees God come down and kill the nazis. The fourth film has some serious problems - things are noticeably iffy when the mystique of the final resting place of the Ark of the Covenant is destroyed - but many of the major issues stem from something at the core of the franchise that just didn't translate to modern cinema. It's a weak entry in a great series, rather than the nadir of all cinema.
