1. Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull
What critics say: "Though the plot elements are certainly familiar,
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull still delivers the thrills and Harrison Ford's return in the title role is more than welcome." - Rotten Tomatoes (78%)
What audiences think: Like the prequels, the fourth Indy flick is a wasted opportunity to both capture the nostalgia of a classic trilogy and introduce a new generation to the franchise. Only 59% of the voters in the Rotten Tomatoes audience liked the film and it has a mediocre 6.3 rating on IMDb. By all accounts, this movie should be anything but Certified Fresh.
Who's right? Again, I side with my fellow moviegoers. Even Steven Spielberg apologized for this. That's when you know it's really bad. All the elements were there for another fun adventure, but the pieces just didn't fit. Again, there was an over-reliance on CGI and not enough effort was put into telling a solid story. The fourth installment definitely missed the presence of memorable supporting characters such as Sallah and Henry Jones, Sr. as Mutt Williams and his swinging monkey friends felt out of place.
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull even introduced a new term to the lexicon, "nuking the fridge," which replaced "jumping the shark" as the go-to phrase to describe a franchise that's past its prime. Hopefully the rumors of a fifth film are just that. Rumors.
Who do you side with on these films? Any other cases you can think of? Let us know in the comments section.