According to Susan Lacy, director of the upcoming HBO documentary "Spielberg," the legendary filmmaker mentions that out of all four instalments in the Indiana Jones series, he likes the "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" the least. The 1984 prequel to "Raiders of the Lost Ark" might have pushed its PG-13 rating to the limit back in the day, a heart is literally pulled out of a living human's chest, but I find it is a damn fine film filled with incredibly thrilling sequences. In fact, Temple" is the only one of the three following "Raiders" that feels like its own movie. I'm surprised 2008's mediocre "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" wasn't Spielberg's choice.
Spielberg hasn't been shy about his discontentment with "Temple of Doom," he told the Sun-Sentinel back in 1989 “I wasn’t happy with the second film at all. It was too dark, too subterranean, and much too horrific. I thought it out-poltered ‘Poltergeist.’ There’s not an ounce of my own personal feeling in ‘Temple of Doom,’ ”
Spielberg also acknowledges in the documentary that he made some "mistakes" with the World War II comedy 1941, which is far and away the worst film of his career.
Back to Indiana Jones. I always thought the movies lessened in quality as they went along. "Raiders of the Lost Ark" is pretty much perfection, one of the best films of the 1980s. "Temple of Doom" is closest to the pulpy style of the serials that inspired Spielberg to make "Raiders of the Lost Ark" in the first place. "The Last Crusade" is too lighthearted, almost sitcom-like. Finally, "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" was a pathetic attempt to bring back Indiana Jones and was basically a rehash of "Raiders."