Angelina Jolie brings a computer-game action hero to life in this overblown, action-only, visual spectacular that ought to satisfy that target audience of adolescent computer-game addicts. [PG-13]
By: Kam Williams
Do you know what Lara Croft looks like? Do you even know who Lara Croft is? Any kid could tell you this fearless, female action hero is the virtual mega-star of several generations of her own computer game. More than 20 million copies of this interactive best-seller have sold in Gameboy, Sega, Sony, CD-ROM and, I’m sure, every other cyber format. Guns-a-blazing, this upper-crust adventurer travels the world in tight, teeny-weenie outfits, fueling the fantasies of nearly every adolescent who’s ever touched a joy stick.
For all of her popularity, Lara Croft has never amounted to any more than the limits of animation have allowed, until now. Finally, the game’s creators decided to tap Oscar-winner Angelina Jolie to flesh out, pardon the expression, the popular cartoon phenomenon for her first feature film.
Director Simon West (left) instructs Angelina Jolie on the set of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, based on a popular video game series. |
The result is Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, an overblown, action-only, visual spectacular that ought to satisfy that target audience of adolescent computer-game addicts. There’s just enough depth to the movie’s superficial plotline to make it all worth the rollicking ride. The story, adapted to the screen by director Simon West, unfolds a lot like Raiders of the Lost Ark, only without the charm or clever asides.
In the original computer game, Lara’s task is to find the three pieces of the Scion, an ancient artifact that has special powers when reassembled. Her quest takes her around the world, from Calcutta to Peru, to the pyramids in Egypt. In the movie, the artifact is a magical triangle called the Clock of Ages, but it only has two halves. Our heroine is in a race to possess it with the oft-rumored, never-exposed Illuminati, an evil, secret society bent on world domination.
A parallel subplot involves locating Lord Croft, Lara’s long-lost father, played by Jolie’s real-life dad, Jon Voight. Although Lord Croft has been missing since 1985, a convenient contraption called the Time Storm aids Lara in her attempt to locate him. This tangential back story seems tacked-on, as if needed to supply an emotional tweak missing from the primary plot line.
I suspect that fans of this film will only remember Tomb Raider for its stunning action sequences played out on the famed 007 sound stages of Pinewood Studios in London. Other elaborate sets, computer-generated images and breathtaking locations in Cambodia, Iceland and England combine to yield a fairly flashy finished product.
The 83-room Croft mansion, outfitted with a loyal manservant, a genius geeky inventor and every gun and gizmo imaginable, allows for a versatile exhibition of pyrotechnic vivisection, all courtesy of limber Lara, just like the computer game. When our luscious leading lady Lara takes her act to the road, the body count only increases.
All told, it’s senseless, sex-linked slaughter for the pre-teen, testosterone-inflamed set.
Rated PG-13. Contains periodic profanity, revealing outfits and wave after wave of gratuitous violence.