Extremely overrated movie

Rating: 6/10 (1 January 2004)

I have finally seen Raiders of the Lost Ark, after having seen the last 2 parts of the trilogy some years ago. I was quite disappointed overall. The opening was entertaining and strong, but then the movie fell into a horribly boring sequence. It picks up again during the truck chase sequence, before leaving us with a ridiculously supernatural ending. That was a let-down for a movie where everything else was reasonably realistic.
Another point I wanted to mention is I can't see how this movie got a PG-13 rating. The amount of gratuitous violence is almost overwhelming. The body count racked up by the end of the movie is probably greater than all of the Friday the 13th movies put together. Granted, the amount of violence is equal to many action movies out today, but they don't have PG-13 ratings. The camera lingers on mutilated faces, gallons of blood are thrown around, and countless numbers of faceless Arabs and Nazis are killed or injured. Not exactly family material.
The few exciting action sequences here save this movie from being a total wreck, but I can't seen any justification for this movie's current position in the top 20 movies of all time. Maybe the sentimental factor is the reason.