Lara Croft: Tomb Raider Review
by Homer Yen (homer_yen AT yahoo DOT com)July 7th, 2001
"Tomb Raider" – Jolie is Jolly as Lara Croft by Homer Yen
(c) 2001
How much you'll enjoy "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" will depend on a couple of things. If you are an avid fan of the buxom, video heroine and just can't get enough of straining your fingers by pressing those tiny buttons on your Nintendo handset, then you won't be disappointed. "LC:TR" offers lots of elaborate sequences that game players can only wish that they could execute on their video consoles. The most impressive scene features our heroine utilizing a bungee cord to fend off a group of armed mercenaries (and if I was trying to do this on the game console, sweet Lara would have died a thousand times at my control). Also neat is the singular motion she executes to reload the ammunition clips of her twin, semi-automatic pistols.
Meanwhile, movie watchers who are enrapt with special effects extravaganzas and big film budgets like "Pearl Harbor" or "The Mummy Returns" ("LC:TR" reportedly cost $100 million to make), will have their hunger for eye candy satiated. This is probably the most handsome looking film thus far this year. Whether Lara is battling stone statues come-to-life, exploring some lost city, or fleeing though jungle foliage, the film pays a great amount of attention to atmosphere. For example, most scenes are bathed in a golden luster to connote a world of power and wealth, while locales of adventure are draped with a mysterious fogginess. The team behind the art direction, set design, and special effects deserves much applause.
So far, so good. But what if you don't fall into either of those two categories and your taste demands more? As long as that taste is for hot, buttered popcorn, then you'll be fine. LC:TR is a good summer film. But it's not much more. It features separate and distinct acts, each featuring cool combat or some other action sequence. It doesn't overcomplicate us with plot. And it gives us a great heroine who is lithe and athletic. The goth Jolie portrays her well, bringing an alluring dimension of seriousness and sexuality.
Lara Croft is James Bond and Indiana Jones rolled into one. Born into wealth and groomed at the most elite schools, she has an appetite for adventure. She travels to dangerous locales around the globe in search of lost crypts and long-forgotten empires. Her greatest quest, however, challenges her to find two halves of an ancient artifact buried in space and time. So with her thigh-high holsters, body-hugging outfits, and the help of her butler and a weapons designer, she travels from England to Italy to Cambodia and a few lost cities in between. Luckily, its brisk pace, it's watchable heroine, and the film's gorgeous look makes us forget about the video game-like plot.
What Lara Croft really lacks, however, is a soul. There is a noticeable lack of humanity in this film. Perhaps Croft comes across as so invulnerable that it didn't matter who wanted to kill her or how many people were going to try or what it meant if Lara should fail. But as this was adapted from a video game, you can arguably say that the film kept its spirit intact. Fans certainly won't be disappointed. All others may feel something lacking.
Grade: B-
S: 1 out of 3
L: 0 out of 3
V: 2 out of 3
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