The film begins with Indiana Jones in a jungle, trying to obtain the Golden Idol from a Peruvian temple, which is protected with traps. The local tribes attack him after, though. But he defeats them.

The scene switches to Indiana Jones teaching a high school class. After that, he meets with a few others, who are the Army Intelligence agents. The agents warn him that the Nazis from Germany will go to Egypt and harm the local communities. Indiana Jones is then told to retrieve the Ark.

He first travels to Nepal and enters a bar. He encounters Marion, whom he used to date, except that he’d been forbidden to. The agent, Arnold Toht, takes a medallion from Marion. But she and Indiana Jones get it back, and then leave the bar.

The two travel to Cairo, where they meet Indiana Jones’s friend, Sallah. He tells them that danger is coming. If that’s not harmful enough, the bad guys kidnap Marion. Indiana Jones goes to save her. But he ends up having to fight against the villains.

I found there to be a little too much set up at the beginning. I also had trouble following it as well as the rest of the story, including Indiana Jones’s goal.

There were some scenes that I thought would have been more intense. A major one was the bar fight. It didn’t have enough tension.

Although the film started out boring, it became more exciting after the bar scene. One aspect that I consider a strength is the main character, Indiana Jones.

I find him to be relatable and believable. He isn’t flawless or a purely brave archeologist. He has fears. One of them is snakes. There is even a scene where he flies on a plane with a snake, which happens to be the pilot’s pet.

And speaking of which, I loved the traveling scenes, which were portrayed as the plane flying and a map showing where it was going, with a red line drawing behind it. I enjoyed guessing the destinations.

Another moment that I enjoyed was any scene involving the monkey from the local Cairo village. Indiana Jones and Marion met him at a little show within the village. The monkey would even walk wherever they went.

It reminded me of Abu, from Disney’s Aladdin, especially with his actions. It was just a coincidence, though, since Aladdin didn’t come out till over a decade later.

Despite the perks in the movie, there is a disappointing scene. That is when Indiana Jones finally found Marion after she was kidnapped. He decided to keep her tied up in order to prevent the bad guys from seeing them.

I didn’t like that. The right thing for him to do would have been to free her and escape with her to safety. That particular decision made him unlikable, although he did free her later.

Like every movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark has twists and turns. Even though this one isn’t big and occurs at the beginning, I was surprised to learn that Indiana Jones taught high school. He also looked unrecognizable, especially with glasses.

Overall, this movie was just decent, mainly because certain parts were difficult to understand.

I give this film 3.5 out of 5 stars.