10 Awesome Movies With Disappointing Sequels
6. Raiders Of The Lost Ark
Most directors of summer blockbusters claim their film is a rollercoaster ride but Raiders Of The Lost Ark is the real deal, a near perfect fusion of action and humour that set the standard for action adventure movies for years.
Alas, even Spielberg struggled to match it in the sequels, which substituted pratfalls for humour and slapstick for charm. Kate Capshaw’s character in Temple Of Doom has the distinction of being one of the most shrill and annoying heroines of the 1980s, capable only of performing unfunny routines and getting herself in hot water. The fact that she later married the director is purely coincidental.
Spielberg wisely roped in Sean Connery for The Last Crusade, but it was still more of the same, with the bickering between the leads attempting to distract you from how thin and forced the material was. Then there’s Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, whose multitude of sins – overblown action scenes, a witless plot that involved aliens, casting Shia LaBeouf - inspired a South Park parody where Indy gets violated by Lucas and Spielberg.