A ride on the roller coaster

Rating: 7/10 (6 May 2012)

Raiders of the lost ark (1981) is a certified roller coaster of entertainment! If you start watching it you will not be able to get your eyes of the screen or keep in your seat. Even the current generation, used to cgi effects won't be deterred from the old time effects present in the movie (matté shots, physical stunts, etc...). I mean, for some reason Lucas and Spielberg decided to maintain the same style of filmmaking in the latest installment of the Indiana Jones franchise, despite the time gap elapsed since Raiders (27 years) and the technology developed since.
This is an adventure-fantasy movie, period. No greater aspirations or elevating themes suggested. We have a hero, Professor Henry Jones Junior (AKA the gung ho archaeologist Indiana Jones), who is running against the stereotypical bad guys to get a land mark archaeological gem, the lost ark of the covenant, overcoming all the traps they lay for him, fighting of every scrimmage possible-and imaginable:- there's a fight in a moving airplane, a pursuit in the streets of Cairo, an escape from a large moving boulder, etc . In this Indiana Jones movie, the first installment in the series, the bad guy is a suave french archaeologist, aided by a group of nazi soldiers and gestapo officers (yes, the movie is set in a pre- second world war scenario), who always out wit Indy, but never seem to get rid of him!
George Lucas has long stated that Indiana Jones is an homage to the old republic serial adventures. Well I haven't seen any of them (they never ran in my country, Portugal), but every one of the Indy movies seem like a very large and entertaining episode that when it's over leaves in me an overwhelming hunger for the next movie, so I supposed that was the general idea perceived by Lucas.
The next thing is to try and explain to you why am I reviewing on this particular Indy movie. Because it's the best in the series? No, at least not for me. That accolade falls to the third movie, "Indiana Jones and the last crusade". Never the less, after seeing it recently I felt I was looking at a rough diamond. Not quite polished and there for not yet presented in all its magnificence, but awakening the nostalgic feelings in you, because you know your in for a fast and bumpy ride, keeping your blood running. Your in for the various lushing sets; the many adventures to come; the different exotic places around the world, everything well scored by John Williams (he actually has a different tune for each character and situation, a device that he followed through the entire series)!
And in the end who (or what) do we have to think to: George Lucas' witty imagination? Harrison Ford's superb rendition of the Humphrey Bogart type of hero? Steven Spielberg's ability to film a fantastic adventure movie_ I've seen the recent Tintin movie he made and trust me, he still knows how to do it!
Only one thing plagues my mind: when these guys are gone, who will we turn to for a good adventure movie on the Sunday afternoon?!!!