Before I begin, I know many people throughout the U.S. and the world love Indiana Jones movies. My brother is one of those people. I thought I was one of those people until I actually sat down and watched Raiders of the Lost Ark for myself. I thought Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was bad and didn’t reflect the awesomeness of Indiana Jones. After watching Raiders, I realized I was wrong. So very wrong.
For those who aren’t familiar with the story, it revolves around college professor and archaeologist Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) (“Indiana”‘s not his real name, I just forget what it actually is) who gets sent on a mission to retrieve the lost ark, holding the spiritual covenant between the ancients and God. The catch is to get the ark before the Nazis do and use it for their own evil whims.
I’m sure it has to do with the fact that it’s 20+ years after the movie came out, but I just couldn’t get into it at all. Some things, like the bit stereotypical Hispanic characters a young Alfred Molina and Vic Tablian played, I’m not going to get too worked up over since it was the ’80s and stereotypes were still rampant even then. BUT what I can’t excuse are the huge plot holes and annoying characters in this movie.
The plot is shoestring thin at best. We know there’s an object to get and we need to find the object. In between we meet some interesting characters (except for Marion, more on her later), many of which could carry their own movies, but we only meet them for split seconds. “Funny” parts, like when Marion (Karen Allen) is stuck in the basket and is being carried around by the bad guys while Indy’s running around trying to save her is dated at best, but even back then, it would probably still read as that Scooby-Doo segment where the gang runs through the hallway of doors from the villain.
Marion by far is the worst character in this film. I didn’t like her in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and I liked her even less in this film. She’s supposed to be “strong”, but she comes off as another badly-written character exhibiting the stereotypes many people (i.e. a lot of men and surprisingly a lot of women) take as fact as to what a “strong” woman character should be like. She’s whiny, brash, flighty (she’s cavorting with both the bad and good sides, supposedly to mislead the bad guys), and just overall irritating to the fullest degree. Why is she hollering at Indy to help her do stuff when he’s trying to both develop a plan as well as maneuver around snakes, his fear? If she’s so strong, she should put her mind to work and help him figure out how to get out of whatever jam they’re in.
Even so, the action scenes are pretty spot on. They’re absolutely engaging, and I wish the entire movie was just action, sans dialogue, in the vein of Samurai Jack. But it isn’t.
In any case, anything I have to say about this movie now, especially since it’s regarded as a classic by mostly everyone, my opinion will not change anyone’s. But, I will say that I didn’t particularly like it on the whole. There were interesting characters (minus Marion), but the characters alone weren’t strong enough to keep me interested.
This is like going back and trying to do a serious critique of Star Wars. These movies are beloved because they embrace their campiness, e.g. Indy shooting his swashbuckling opponent instead of fighting with him (a genius move on Ford’s part). Even the opening seen of hundreds of young students vying for Indy’s attention is overdone for laughs. People generally come to Indiana Jones expecting two things: good action and stupid humor. On those two points, it delivers.
That’s true that it delivers on action, and I did say that the action is the best part of the movie. And I did say that my opinion on this movie doesn’t really matter anyway since it’s a beloved movie. I didn’t grow up with it, so I don’t hold the same views as a lot of people do with Indiana Jones. And even with a lot of stuff I like, like Jonny Quest or Scooby-Doo, I recognize that there’s a lot wrong with it, like how hokey the plots were most of the time. Anyway, we can agree to disagree.
[...] few weeks ago, I wrote a retroactive review of Raiders of the Lost Ark after having viewed it in its entirety for the first time. I was honestly [...]