IFDB Review: Raiders of the Lost Ark – The Serial:

Awesome concept, this. Reworking Raiders Of The Lost Ark into a chapter serial. Appropriate since the Indiana Jones trilogy, and particularly the first movie, was a crackling, state of the art homage to vintage Republic and Universal cliffhangers. (Note: I have watched, and continue to watch, a whale of a lot of serials. From Houdini to Dr. Mabuse to Miss Mend. From Republic to Universal to Mascot. Up to modern torchbearers, J-dramas and K-dramas. This intrigued me.) Video - 720p, MPEG2. As indicated in the info tab, video quality is substandard. Editing is choppy with too many quick fades and abrupt transitions. Opening credits are excellent, however, with rousing action and adventure and a white steed. The title font is well chosen. Recaps are faithful and concise. That said, closing titles ought to have mirrored the intros with something akin to, “Will Indy survive the ...” or “What danger awaits ...” Audio - 2 Channel, 224 Kb. Sound is far superior to 1940s mono, perhaps a little too clean. Editing matches the video, sadly. Steep fades, blunt transitions. Narrative - This dutifully follows the original story with no reworking or extensions, so nothing amiss. Serial have basic rules and guidelines, though, and those were either ignored or not attempted. Straight off: Where are chapter ending cliffhangers? Most of the endings here are not compelling. There is no sense of danger, let alone death. One might as well be watching Maisie or Blondie. Also missing are the bane of serials - the cheats. Fans scream at those, but they are expected and enjoyably irritating. Chapter 13, by the way, is traditionally given to overall recap and that would have bumped Rmjet’s edit to a more typical 15 episodes. Enjoyment - Yes and no. I readily appreciate and applaud what was attempted and accomplished here. The result is fair approximation back to roots, but it misses the mark. To me, this is a solid, really solid, rough draft. I had hoped for a more “serial” experience, however. To be fair, I don’t know what in the way of deleted scenes or outtakes are available, well chosen stock footage would have sufficed for chapter endings. In an ideal world, a V02 might have boosted my grade. Recommended to FanEditors and potential editors, this is a solid study. For the more casual or curious, my recommendation remains, but rather a mild one. Big, big thanks to throwgnCpr for making this available - and keeping it available.

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