This series just takes wild, drastic turns with me. After loathing Temple of Doom I wasn't expecting much at all and was delightfully surprised to find a film that I enjoyed even more than the first. After watching Raiders of the Lost Ark a part of me was wishing that the film had taken a darker approach to it's story, but Temple of Doom did that and it just didn't work for the character at all. The charm and slight cheese of Indiana Jones didn't mesh well at all with a dark tone and when you throw in a miserable supporting character it tanked the whole project.

In The Last Crusade they brought back the lightness to it and with a great supporting character for Jones to bounce back and forth with it made it such an entertaining ride. From the wonderful opening it really did just sing for me the whole way. There wasn't a dull moment at all and they did a great job of mixing the exciting action with some nice little characters moments along the road. The character feels so lived in at this point and Harrison Ford wears it so well, but giving him Sean Connery to work with was a point of casting genius. Connery's in-and-out accent was quite distracting at first, but once I got past that it was just an utter joy to see the chemistry him and Ford had together. The comedic bits were perfect with the lighter tone and I found myself laughing out loud several time.

The actual quest that drove the narrative was, for the first time, a pretty interesting one and in the end even brought along some nice light themes with it. This is a series that is never going to establish any kind of genuine gravity, but it's not supposed to and Last Crusade for me was basically he perfect adventure movie. I greatly enjoyed it.