 There were some dissenting voices: Sight & Sound described it as an "expensively gift-wrapped Saturday afternoon pot-boiler", and New Hollywood champion Pauline Kael, who once contended that she only got "really rough" on large films that were destined to be hits but were nonetheless "atrocious", found the film to be a "machine-tooled adventure" from a pair of creators who "think just like the marketing division". (Lucas later named a villain, played by Raiders Nazi strongman Pat Roach, in his 1988 fantasy film Willow after Kael.) The film is considered to be a classic of the action and adventure genres by many contemporary critics, and carries a 96 % "Certified Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, as well as a 85 % rating on Metacritic, indicating "universal acclaim".
