The National Treasure Movies Are Better Than The Indiana Jones Films

Being stuck in lockdown has allowed me to rewatch a lot of films, including the National Treasure films which I now think are better than the Indiana Jones movies.

I know. This is a pretty big hot take, but let me explain why I think this to be the cast.

I’m not saying that the Indiana Jones movies are bad. What I’m saying is that the National Treasure movies are really that good and pretty much forgotten.

This lockdown has allowed me to go back and rewatch a lot of movies I’d kind of forgotten about.

This also coincided with me becoming a Disney Plus subscriber.

I’ve recently rewatched Solo: A Star Wars Story and was pleasantly surprised by how much better it was than I remembered it being.

I also sat through Honey, I Shrunk The Kids and that film hasn’t stood the test of time.

National Treasure was another movie on my list to rewatch and I did, and boy, are they good movies.

Nicolas Cage is really good in the National Treasure movies

National Treasure 3 might happen with Nicolas Cage – Credit: Disney

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The first thing about these action-adventure movies that struck me was how good Nicolas Cage is in them.]

He plays a cross between Indiana Jones and Robert Langdon and he’s really good at it, which is surprising.

Cage is pretty low key in these movies, which is also unusual and is actually really likeable.

This was when it dawned on me that I think I like his character Ben Gates, a bit more than I like Indiana Jones.

Don’t get me wrong. I think Harrison Ford is incredible in those movies.

But, he can be a tad stupid in some of them, and is also a real dick.

Indiana Jones is a bit of a dick

Harrison Ford as Indianan Jones – Credit: Disney

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I’ve always been a huge fan of the Indiana Jones movie.

I think Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade is an incredible film and the others have their moments.

However, for a man who supposedly is one of the smartest professors of archaeology in the world, Indy can be a real dummy sometimes.

Then there’s Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom in which he’s accompanied by probably one of the most annoying characters ever brought to the silver screen in Kate Capshaw’s Willie Scott.

The one thing Ioved about the National Treasure movies was that they weren’t just about Ben’s brilliance.

He’s only as good as his team, and his team is great.

Ben’s joined by Dr. Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger), Riley Poole (Justin Bartha), Patrick Henry Gates (Jon Voight), Agent Peter Sandusky (Harvey Keitel) and Agent Hendricks (Armando Riesco) in both movies.

Indy is very much not a team player and can treat people pretty poorly in his movies.

The National Treasure movies are much more about the team and less about the man, and I really love that aspect of the movies.

The National Treasure movies are more about the team than the lead

The Indiana Jones movies have been Disney movies for a while – Credit: Lucasfilm

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I would also argue that Indiana Jones franchise has only got two genuinely good movies (Raiders of the Lost Arch and The Last Crusade).

The other two are pretty poor. The Temple of Doom isn’t great and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is awful.

National Treasure and National Treasure: Book of Secrets are just as good as each other.

As I mentioned previously, I don’t dislike the Indiana Jones movies.

I love them and have done since I was a kid.

However, as action-adventure movies are concerned, I think the National Treasure movies get more right than the majority of the Indiana Jones films do.

I also have an issue with the villains in the Indiana Jones movies.

They’re almost always either Nazis, Russians or strange tribes.

The National Treasure movies are pretty US centric and they don’t stereotype their villains as much as the Indiana Jones movies do.

What do you make of this article?

Did you enjoy the National Treasure movies?

If so, do you think they’re better than the Indiana Jones films?

Let us know in the comments below.

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