Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (15 June 2001)
directed by Simon West
starring Angelina Jolie, Jon Voight, Iain Glen, Noah Taylor, Daniel Craig, Richard Johnson, Chris Barrie, Robert Phillips
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MPAA rating: Studio: Paramount Pictures, Eidos Interactive Ltd., Lawrence Gordon Productions Script: Patrick Massett, John Zinman Music: Graeme Revell Running time: 100 minutes Tags: Action; dogs; Fantasy; guns; time travel; video game adaptation Tactical strength: [5/10]
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for action violence and some sensuality
I have never played the Tomb Raider video game, but my fifteen-year-old son tells me he really likes the Xbox game. I have yet to see a video-game adaptation that really made a great movie. I think the elements that make a good game don't necessarily convert to a good feature film. In a game I like to blast things to bits with various high-caliber weapons. Flooding me with a ton of creatures for destruction works in a game because I have the controller in my hand, and I live or die by my skill. Unfortunately, since Tomb Raider the movie doesn't have an interactive component, the numerous blasting scenes don't provide the same sense of satisfaction. Ultimately, I felt like I was watching all the cut scenes from a video game run together rather than a regular feature film.
Tomb Raider does have a thin plot. Lady Lara Croft (Angelina Jolie) works as a freelance artifact raider. To call her an archeologist gives her too much credit. She practices at home -- a large mansion and estate in England -- against a robot opponent with a pair of pistols rather than perfecting her technique with shovel and dust brush. Her father (Jon Voight) left her a mysterious key and a clue that she can only use the key during the upcoming alignment of the planets. As Lara learns, an ancient artifact exists that allows the holder to control time. Fearing misuse of the artifact, the ancients broke the artifact in two and hid the pieces in remote locations: Thailand and Siberia. Lara goes after the key, and so does Iain Glen (Manfred Powell), working to attain the artifact for the Illuminati. Intersperse several long fight sequences, and you have Tomb Raider.
Angelina Jolee actually delivers her lines with sincerity and does a good job in the action sequences. With the exception of Jon Voight, the rest of the cast comes off fairly flat, which further emphasizes the hollow plot. How often have we seen the megalomaniac who sends in henchmen rather than face any personal danger. All too often the Illuminati get thrown into a plot as a weak attempt to add depth and complexity, and Tomb Raider buys right in to this trap. In just about any movie that needs a European secret society, you have two easy choices: the Knights Templar and the Illuminati. Both come with a preestablished pop-culture history that allows a plot to just mention one of these groups and piggy-back on the stereotypes rather than developing anything new or unique.
So you get lots of action, and you get to watch a shapely heroine blast away tons of bad guys and a few animated stone creatures, but you can put your brain on vacation and just let your testosterone enjoy this one.
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