'Tomb Raider 2: The Cradle Of Life' Set Report

"Everything about this film is bigger than the first, there's about two to three times more action this time around," says producer Lloyd Levin, who co-wrote the script for the new film with Kirk Petruccelli. "We're much more involved with visual effects with this movie, not just in quantity, but in the ambitions of what we want to accomplish with CG."

The new movie takes a dual approach - bigger-is-better summer movie mentality plus a deeper story and more realistic characters and situations.

"We have an actress in Angelina Jolie who can handle anything we can throw at her, and I think that was a missed opportunity with the first film. This one is much more character-driven. We make full use of Angelina's talent," adds Levin.

The film opens with an elaborate action sequence that nearly kills Lara, which paves the way for a darker tone to this second film - a route the new PS2 game is also taking. But the movie and games are not working together (other than cross-promoting - a movie trailer will be on the PS2 game in February). Lara sets out to find Pandora's Box, and she must achieve a number of objectives before finding the box. Like the games, she'll go treasure hunting. Action sequences include a water chase on jet skis in Greece and a motorcycle race across the Great Wall of China.