C3PX said:My feeling are that a near perfect action/adventure film was made in the 80's, beautifully styled after old black and white adventure serials, and the three sequels that followed drifted away from the spirit and quality of the original, finally ending on IJATKOTCS which felt like a cheap comedy spoof of itself.
As I have explained, I couldn't care less about the old serials or about trying to imitate them. From reading The Secret History of Star Wars I gather that some of the crappiness of the prequels was caused by trying to imitate the old serials. I'd much rather the franchises were not limited by old serials. And I really don't see how Raiders was this "perfect action/adventure film". Was it because of its bland lack of intensity? Or its bland annoying villains? Or its dumb everybody-goes-gooey ending?