It's not the years, it's the mileage

Rating: 10/10 (12 March 2015)

There are critics who point fingers at Raiders - and Jaws, and Star Wars - because, regardless of their quality, these movies kickstarted the new wave of setpiece-focused blockbusters, with a detrimental effect on Hollywood. However, Raiders is no more responsible for The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor than J.R.R. Tolkien is to blame for The Sword of Truth, Bram Stoker for Twilight, or Isaac Asimov for Transformers.
There is a main factor which makes Raiders a timeless masterpiece and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull a piece of garbage: RESTRAINT.
Consider the elegance of action scenes. Spielberg's setpieces here are stylish, kinetic, with attention to spatial relationships, cause and effect. Every action by the hero has a direct result on his surroundings, and vice versa (see the legendary prologue, the iconic truck scene). Practical effects and stunts allow for a realistic, gritty feel... which is lost when you indulge in absurd acrobatics and frames cluttered by CGI stuff (hello, Star Wars prequels!).
In Raiders, the protagonist gets dusty, bloody, beaten up: every battle takes a PHYSICAL TOLL on him, much like in the first Die Hard (while in the last ones John McClaneis essentially a superhero, which DEFIES THE WHOLE POINT of it). If action has visible consequences, it's compelling. On the other hand, show our hero slamming on a hard surface after a fifty feet fall and walking away without a bruise (hello, Hobbit trilogy!), and everything INSTANTLY becomes boring.
And then we have the "Grandpa Syndrome", which pushes aged directors to film movies their grandchildren "can watch too" - laudable for family comedies, often disastrous for other genres (hello, Greedo shooting first!).
The plot shows restraint as well. Everything is trimmed down, elegantly simple. A clear goal (find the Ark). High stakes (if the Nazis find it first, they will gain terrible powers). Non-stop tension: Indy and Marion are constantly chased, on the run, at disadvantage, out of time (much like Han and Leia in The Empire Strikes Back and unlike in the SW prequels). Every scene advances the plot, every dialogue defines characters; there is not a single wasted frame or line.
Of course, credits goes also to the fantastic script by Kasdan, with its quotable lines and the most wickedly ironic ending in action cinema; to Ford's effortlessly charismatic turn; to John Williams' soundtrack, which is the stuff of legends.
A classic all directors and scriptwriters should revisit before inflating their blockbusters with useless bloat. Raiders works as well now as it did thirty years ago... while Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Attack of the Clones, The Desolation of Smaug and A Good Day to Die Hard feel already stale.
10/10