Steven Spielberg has birthed a number of movie history's most well-liked accomplishments and, in of long-running franchises, is perhaps best known for the Indiana Jones franchise. Both modernized nostalgic adventure movie tropes and iconography to great success with audiences and produced some of the most memorable sequences in the history of cinema. But which of the movie series have fared better with critics?
Looking at every movie and its score on review aggregate site Metacritic, this list will hopefully give a newcomer to either franchise a better understanding of the movies and their sometimes complicated history.
Jurassic Park III (42)
Joe Johnston's threequel is the most forgotten movie of the Jurassic Park franchise for various reasons. For one thing, it's by far the shortest and least star-studded entry and the story adds virtually nothing to the formula that fans couldn't get from the other movies even at the time.
Original cast member Sam Neill, nevertheless, does a great job of carrying the movie on his lonesome shoulders as fellow original main cast member Laura Dern sits shamefully wasted in the background as not much more than a cameo.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (51)
The followup to franchise restarter polarizing entries into the franchise.
Similarly remaking a number of the core elements of the original Jurassic Park's first sequel as Jurassic World remade Jurassic Park, the movie slipped further into algorithmic screenwriting in the eyes of many critics and fans alike.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (57)
The first sequel in the Indiana Jones franchise, which is technically a prequel as it takes place before the events of Raiders of the Lost Ark, emphasized the darkest elements of the original movie but depicted its nostalgic genre elements in a much more cynical way.
Though full of some of the series' most memorable moments, and not without its fans, Temple of Doom is often considered as the black sheep of the franchise.
Jurassic World (59)
Colin Treverrow's revamping of the series for a modern audience was a big hit at the box office and did generally well with fans and critics, but the movie wasn't without its controversies.
Antiquated gender roles were a topic unto themselves when discussing the movie and its generic, rehashed, structure, whilst satisfyingly tied into the movie's inherent theme of corporate cynicism, was too much nostalgia and not enough ingenuity for some.
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (59)
The last of the Jurassic Park movies with middling reviews was from Spielberg himself and centered on Jeff Goldblum's side character from the original movie, Dr. Ian Malcolm, as he travels to the previously-unexplored second island of the Park's prehistoric world.
The Lost World, whilst certainly not without its own iconic scenes, simply didn't live up to the tight plotting of the first movie and critics were far less enthusiastic.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (65)
The third Indiana Jones movie returned the title character back to a story much more in tune with what audiences loved and ed the most about Raiders of the Lost Ark and fared far better with critics.
The rough and tumble archeologist goes in search of the Holy Grail with his father, played by Sean Connery, in this sequel and the pair demonstrate a lastingly entertaining dynamic.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (65)
The latest Indiana Jones movie still remains one of the most controversial entries with fans despite being quite highly-rated by critics. There was an almost-20-year gap in between Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Last Crusade and, in that time, fan expectations had morphed into something similar to those seen amongst Star Wars fans.
The movie has its undeniable flaws, as all of the movies in the series realistically do, but the hatred leveled against it and its more 50s sci-fi spin on the core structure was disproportionately intense more amongst older fans than it was amongst critics or general audiences.
Jurassic Park (68)
Steven Spielberg's original masterpiece may not be rated by Metacritic's calculations to be one of the director's top efforts in the eyes of critics but Jurassic Park is undeniably sacred amongst movie fans in general.
The pioneering blending of live-action practical effects and computer animation holds up in many instances even today and John Williams' score is one of the prolific composer's most iconic works.
Raiders of the Lost Ark (85)
The original Indiana Jones movie introduced one of cinema's most beloved heroes and refined what filmmakers thought accomplishable within the action-adventure genre.
John Williams, again, delivered one of his most recognizable scores and cinematographer Douglas Slocombe highlighted Spielberg's practicality while making the composition of the movie's shots timelessly beautiful.
