9 Movie Sequels That Ruined Great Characters

The hard-drinking, chain-smoking, Nazi-fighting Marion Ravenwood we saw in Raiders of the Lost Ark was no doubt the best leading lady of the first three Indiana Jones movies.

Granted, that may have been largely by default given that Temple of Doom’s Willie was an irritating diva and Dr Elsa Schneider was a Nazi but Marion was still the feistiest and most likeable of the three even if she did end up falling for Indy again by the end of the film.

In Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, however, we see the once tough and tomboyish woman who could drink anyone under the table reduced to a watered-down shadow of her former self that verges on soccer mom.

Of course, if this were real life, it’s likely that 20 years and the experience of motherhood (plus a normal, healthy relationship) later Marion would have mellowed considerably. But this isn’t real life (in case Indy surviving a kiloton nuclear blast didn’t already give that away) and we wanted feisty firecracker Marion.