Steven Spielberg - Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), 3/10

Without using gross oversimplifications often applied to criticism of the film, it is hard to specifically point to how Raiders is “great” despite it being dubbed so by many. It is a spiritual precursor to many films of the eighties and nineties including Spielberg’s own projects that rarely say anything meaningful or worthwhile. The fun quality of the movie is hard to quantify but it is plagued by uninteresting one-dimensional characters, misguided appropriations, and a tragically underdeveloped plot. Some action sequences such as Indy’s acrobatics while driving the truck are well done and impactful, but others largely fall under the category of unnecessary or what now amounts to unsuccessful spectacle. It unfairly loses some of its potency because it has been duplicated many times since, but the blueprint itself is clearly and visibly flawed. There is ironically little to praise and much to cringe about, its inherent nationalism, nostalgia probing, poor acting, and self-praised ridiculousness are entirely non-immersive and hard to watch. It feels much longer than it should considering its brevity, mostly because its indulgence is meant to be shared with the audience rather than what it truly appears to be, which is nonsensical silliness and forced scale. It is too narratively grounded to reach the greatness of Star Wars and too ridiculous to reach any sort of greatness as an adventure genre film. The lack of depth in most of its parts, and consequently as a whole, makes the story itself feel empty when it finally ends, so it becomes appropriately and neatly stacked with the ark among the litter of action films who came before and after.