Entertaining But Badly Paced

Rating: 7/10 (18 May 2005)

I've never been a massive fan of the Indiana Jones movies so forgive me when I say I don't believe this movie really belongs in the mid section of the IMDb top 250 movies because it's no masterpiece of cinema
As good old fashioned entertainment it certainly succeeds but as a great movie it's flawed . Despite an attempt to bring character development to the eponymous character at the start of the movie the screenplay by Jeffrey Boam quickly becomes a merger between the first two movies with a secret cult protecting a sacred object and Nazis wanting to get their hands on it . There is a subplot featuring Nazi traitors but when the traitors are revealed about 50 minutes into the running time it means there's nowhere else for the story to go hence the story becomes bogged down in a long set piece involving a Nazi ubertank
To be fair the positives outweigh the negatives and it's good to see Sean Connery in a blockbuster where his presence lends weight . In fact just think how much worse this movie could have been without the British talent in front of the camera , Julien Glover is impressive and even John Rhys Davies makes an impact . We also have scenes of violence that are fun without becoming too explicit which is my major gripe with RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK which probably makes this sequel the best in the series even though it's not a truly great film
I think it'd be a mistake to continue the series ala STAR WARS though