Some good fun, but highly overrated.

Rating: 10/10 (6 December 2001)

This movie is like the 1930s Saturday matinee serials, and it has some fun moments, but it isn't a brilliant masterpiece, or anything close. It falls into the same category as George Lucas' "Star Wars" trilogy: fun, but not really intelligent. It's bizarre how people can confuse the two. "Raiders of the Lost Ark" has a very intriguing, though slight, plot and it is fun to see Indiana Jones search for the Ark of the Covenant while fending off the bad guys in some great action scenes. But the slight plot starts to wear very thin after the ark is discovered, and the movie dives into a constant battle of Indiana getting possession of the ark and Belloq taking it away, and it becomes very tedious. After the ark is discovered, the movie becomes plagued with filler scenes, beginning with the scene in which Indiana and Marion try to steal the plane, and continuing with the truck chase and the boat ride until the gruesome end, which is very lazily written. Sure, there are some fun moments, and those less interested in plot development will get a kick out of it, but a masterpiece, or even a very good movie, it isn't.