Lara Croft - Tomb Raider 2 - The Cradle Of Life
(2003)
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Popular video game character Lara Croft returns to the big screen in this sequel to LARA CROFT: TOMB RAIDER. Intrepid British archaeologist Lara Croft (Angelina Jolie) has made perhaps the most important archaeological discovery in history: an orb that leads to the mythical Pandora's Box. Unfortunately, the orb falls into the hands of Jonathan Reiss (Ciaran Hinds), an evil scientist who deals in killer viruses and hopes to sell the secrets of the box as the ultimate weapon. Recruited by British Intelligence to get the orb back from Reiss, Lara enlists Terry Sheridan (Gerard Butler), a British marine turned mercenary--and her former love interest--to help. The two embark on an adventure that spans continents in an attempt to regain the orb. Lara is a walking advertisement for "girl power." She's brilliant, athletic, courageous, and saucy. She flips jet skis, parachutes to safety from tall buildings, dives, rides horses--nothing seems beyond her. Best of all, Lara is one of the good ones--she'll do whatever she must to keep the world safe. Directed by Jan de Bont, this film was shot on location in Greece, Kenya, Hong Kong, England, and Wales. |
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In a disappointing summer for blockbuster sequels, this follow-up to 2001's debut Tomb Raider movie gave new meaning to under-performance at the US box office, entering the chart at number four and tumbling down the Top Ten in subsequent weeks. In this instance, the American public have it right. Bringing in new director Jan De Bont (Speed, Twister) has done nothing to refresh the franchise, nor untangle it from panic-led editing. Angelina Jolie may look the part as video-gaming's most famous female icon, but her 2D counterpart still exhibits more warmth and personality, and for a Bond-style travelogue/action adventure, this is unconvincing, witless, pancake-flat stuff. Teamed with disgraced former agent Terry Sheridan (Reign of Fire's Gerard Butler), Ms Croft journeys from China (looking remarkably like Wales because it is) to Tanzania via Greece in search of the fabled Pandora's Box. Ciaran Hinds gives it his pantomime-all as the evil scientist, but with a plot that makes little sense and set pieces as ho-hum as two stuntmen gliding from the top of a building, one hopes that, like the box, this lame series will now be sealed forever.