Raiders of the Lost Ark: Review By soylent green Lantern

Deus ex machina -noun

1. (in ancient Greek and Roman drama) a god introduced into a play to resolve the entanglements of the plot.

2. any artificial or improbable device resolving the difficulties of a plot.

Okay, let's begin. I'm not going to spend much time on this as I am obviously the minority by not liking it. It's taken me about 4 years to finally see this film through to the end. The ending of 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' was cringe worthy, which I shall explain in the coming paragraphs.

The film stands at an hour and fifty-five minutes and follows Indiana Jones, played by Harrison Ford, who is portrayed as an adventurous throwback to the 1930s film serial treasure hunters and pulp action heroes, with an alter ego of Doctor Henry Jones Jr., a respected archaeologist at Marshall College, a fictional college in Connecticut. In this adventure, he is pitted against the Nazis, traveling the world to prevent them from recovering the Ark of the Covenant. He is aided by Marion Ravenwood and Sallah. The Nazis are led by Jones's archrival, a Nazi-sympathizing French archaeologist named René Belloq, and Arnold Toht, a sinister Gestapo agent.

Awesome.

Now, after silly explosions, fight scenes, and whatever else that seemed as if they were fight scenes that were cut from a Looney Toons cartoon for being to violent, we get to the climax:

When Marion Ravenwood and Indiana think that they are safe aboard a tramp steamer. Then, their boat is boarded by the Nazis who once again steal the Ark and kidnap Marion. Indiana stows away on the Nazis' U-boat and follows them to an isolated island where Belloq and the Nazis plan to test the power of the Ark before presenting it to Adolf Hitler. Indiana reveals himself and threatens to destroy the Ark with a rocket launcher, but Belloq calls his bluff for, as archaeologists, they both want to see it opened. Indiana surrenders and is tied to a post with Marion as Belloq performs a ceremonial opening of the Ark, which appears to contain nothing but a pile of dust, the ruined remains of the Ten Commandments. Suddenly, spirits emerge from the Ark; aware of the supernatural danger of looking at the opened Ark, Indiana warns Marion to close her eyes. Belloq and the Nazis, who do not look away, are all killed by the Ark's divine powers, and the Ark closes itself with a crack of thunder. Which brings us back to deus ex machina.

This ending means that there was no need for Indy to go out there and stop them in the first place. If I had made that film, I would have ended it with them all dying, just to stop the f*cking series. Either that or Indy finding out about the situation, shrugging it off, going home, have a beer, and go to sleep.

Now...............COMPLAIN!!