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As Hitch rightly pointed out, the Maguffin is the object which the characters care greatly about, and the audience not at all. But the bargain between the film and the audience is made only when the characters care about the Maguffin ... and the movie is improved to the extent the characters demonstrate their concern for it.
Temple of Doom had zero Maguffin and Last Crusade had a boring one.
Also, as Jen pointed out yesterday, Raiders of the Lost Ark has a decidedly more adult tone than its sequels. I hated the dumming-down for kids that started with Temple of Doom. Short Round may be a great character, but he's a symptom of that slide.
The sickly sweet ForGod'sSake Save-The-Children stuff, the replacement of snappy 30's banter dialogue with stupid kid-stuff talk, the trading of twisted comic-style gore for retardedly juvenile gross-outs, the substitution of gritty outdoor shooting for glossy no-scuff set-boundness, and switching a girl you'd like Indy to sleep with for one you'd like Indy to kill are but others.
Indy 3 had some adult themes, but played them out childish ways. With some exceptions, most of the dialogue was dumbed down.
Also, the humor in Raiders was just keener and sharper than in the other films. Shooting the simitar dude, the Nazi coat hanger, and leaving Marion tied up to a pole were big laughs, and really rather witty ... especially when compared with the type of laughs in the other two films (and there are laughs, I'll admit.)
After seeing all the films back-to-back, it's harder to remember when each came out years apart ... and I expected each to stand on their own. They did not. They're much better now as part of a series, where I can just enjoy this or that setpiece or bit of business without expecting a begining, middle, end, resolution, climax or (lost) arc.
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