LARA CROFT TOMB RAIDER: THE CRADLE OF LIFE (2003) / ** 1/2
Directed by Jan De Bont. Screenplay by Dean Georgaris, from a story by Steven E de Souza and James V Hart. Starring Angelina Jolie, Gerard Butler, Ciarán Hinds. Running time: 117 minutes. Rated AA for violent scenes by the MFCB. Reviewed on August 5th, 2003.
By SHANNON PATRICK SULLIVAN
Synopsis: An undersea earthquake serendipitously provides adventuress Lara Croft (Jolie) with access to the lost library of Alexander the Great. There she discovers a mysterious encrypted map to a powerful and deadly artefact -- the mythical Pandora's Box. When the map is stolen by ruthless businessman Jonathan Reiss (Hinds), Croft seeks the aid of imprisoned former lover Terry Sheridan (Butler). Together, they must prevent Reiss from opening the Box and unleashing terror upon the world.
Review: There are interesting differences between the two "Tomb Raider" movies, none more so than their visual appearance. In the original, director Simon West went out of his way to make his film look like a computer game brought to life. His successor, Jan De Bont, makes no such effort, making "Cradle Of Life" less distinctive but also more palatable. Of the first movie, I wrote that its arcade-style pacing was "so rapid... that any sense of thoughtful filmmaking goes out the window". Not so here, as De Bont takes the time to better establish his characters and more coherently shift them around to a variety of exciting set pieces. There's a greater sense of story to "Cradle Of Life", despite the fact that it revolves around an ill-defined Macguffin in the form of the "Pandora's Box". So, yes, "Cradle Of Life" is better than the first "Tomb Raider". Unfortunately, though, the gains it makes are somewhat muted by an astonishingly predictable and lacklustre climax, as villains are abruptly dispatched and the movie's chief character arc comes to a rather unadventurous conclusion. It feels as though cast and crew showed up on set one day and suddenly realised the last ten pages of the script had never been written. Unlike its computer-console cousins, then, the "Tomb Raider" movie franchise is still waiting to hit a home run.
Copyright © 2003 Shannon Patrick Sullivan. Archived at The Popcorn Gallery, http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sps/movies.html
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