Lara Croft Tomb Raider

1. Lara Croft Tomb Raider
2. Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life

SF elements

shoot-em-up computer game live action

2001 / TV

Lara Croft Tomb Raider

Review

The film of the computer game. Although I've never played any of the Tomb Raider computer games, I've seen the splendid Lucozade and Kit-Kat ads, so I've a good enough idea what this is about.

Lara Croft [Angelina Jolie] belongs to the school of archeology that sneers at Indiana Jones for being so hesitant and painstaking. Her much-loved but mysterious father died years earlier, and has left her clues about an important artefact needed for a significant planetary alignment [there seems no reason he could not have arranged to warn her earlier, so she would have had more than a day or so to react, but never mind]. An Evil Enemy is after the same artefact, so that he can Rule the World. The race is on, guns blazing.

Lots of hilariously fun over-the-top action sequences make this laugh-out-loud enjoyable mind candy. There is a quarter-hearted attempt to provide a little characterisation, but just ignore that, sit back, set your acceptance of the ludicrous to 'high', and enjoy the cartoon-style action.

Rating: 4

2003 / cinema

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life

Review

A second installment of the computer game made life. It dispenses with the boring mysterious father sub-plot, replacing it with a slightly less boring love-interest sub-plot (less boring because less time is devoted to it), and a rather over-explained McGuffin artefact (to say the explanation is implausible would be an understatement). An Evil Enemy is after the same artefact, so that he can Destroy the World. The race is on, guns blazing.

But the glorious over-the-top action sequences are there in full, and I'll never think of the word accessorising in the same way again. Great mind-candy.

Rating: 4