| Product: |
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (DVD) |
| Date: |
07/10/04 (168 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Angelina Jolie in full on Lara Croft mode., Lush scenery.
Disadvantages: Awful story., Uninspired action sequences that just don't stand out., Jan de Bont.
The majority of this review was originally written in August 2003 when the film opened in cinemas.
Directed by - Jan DeBont
Starring - Angelina Jolie, Gerard Butler, Ciarán Hinds, Chris Barrie, Noah Taylor, Djimon Hounsou, Til Schweiger, Simon Yam
Length - 114 minutes
Cert - 12A
The first film created a lot of interest, manly just to see how the video game heroine Lara Croft had been; converted shall we say, to the big screen. It wasn't a 'must-see' film (not too bad though) but it did turn out to be a major hit (over $250 million sticky notes worldwide). And of course, if it makes money then the studio will repeat the formula, which is exactly what's happened here.
The film opens in Greece with Lara (Jolie) finding an orb that holds information about the whereabouts of Pandora's Box. Greek myth tells us that once opened Pandora's Box unleashes a great power. Basically it's like a nuclear weapon the size of a lunch box. Unfortunately for Lara she loses the orb after it falls into the hands of some bad guys (I'm talking regular 'no name' bad guys). Lara isn't very happy. She gets even more furious when MI6 arrive at her home (which is in Buckinghamshire I might add), giving her a job to do. She doesn't like taking orders but she sees that they want her to reclaim the orb, which is now in China in the hands of Mr Bad Guy, Jonathan Reiss (Hinds). She agrees to the job as long as she can bring a former ex-partner along, Terry Sheridan (Butler).
Looking back at the past few months, the best of the blockbusters were supported by a decent story. Unfortunately for Cradle of Life, this sequel collapses due to the story being weaker than a member of staff at Dixons. Cradle of Life is THE definition of summer blockbuster trash. Trash usually comes in the form on an action film, mainly a sequel. Add the fact that this is based on a video game and the director is Jan de Bont and you'll find that all the ingredients for a waste of time are complete. The film is a pretty forgettable experience, which makes writing this review rather hard since there's very little I found memorable about it. This is not the kind of thing I'd like to spend £6 on, especially when you can buy two tubs of Haagan-Dazs for that price. In case you're wondering, I thankfully saw this film for free.
Gracing the poster with a, "Come and get some boys" pose, Jolie herself is actually far too serious in her role. However, that and her "almost about to explode lips" are probably what keep the film going. You can't deny that Jolie is pretty much the best thing on screen. Sure it's far from up there as her best role as she appears to be very one-dimensional. Even when she starts to get a bit emotional she still puts on that tough girl face (maybe an exact representation of Lara Croft?). Still, you can see that Jolie has made an effort and put some work into this character as well as perfecting that accent. Plus there are a number of shots where the camera simply can't help but showcase Jolie's figure. But just remember that one day Jolie will grow old and find it difficult to walk, so she'll sit down and watch this film saying, "Damn I used to have a good figure back then."
Butler as Lara's partner Terry Sheridan is a seen it all before character. He's taken out of prison to help Lara, but it also just so happens that they both have feelings for each other. Giving Lara a partner who travels with her means that the sequel does away with one of the pluses about the original; the situation of a lone hero going up against the overwhelming odds. So I was surprised to see that he helps Lara out a lot more than I expected (it would have been interesting if it was the other way around). Apart from the occasional funny joke Butler just doesn't throw out anything enduring about his character. Just like James Bond, relationships never really last in Lara's life so you can pretty much imagine his outcome.
Hinds plays the "Oh my God, what a predictable villain," Jonathan Reiss. Again there isn't anything memorable about him except for the fact that he's foreign and has a stupid accent, just like the bad guys in every single rubbish action adventure movie ever made. Returning from the first film are Chris Barrie as Lara's butler Hillary and Noah Taylor as computer wiz Bryce. Both of them are pretty much wasted this time around as they have even less screen time.
Well Cradle of Life is mainly an action blockbuster so surely the action is where it should excel... well, not quite. Some of the action sequences deliver their fair share of stunts. We see Lara pole-vaulting towards a helicopter, there's a small-scale shootout in an underground laboratory and Lara and Terry escape from a skyscraper by flying off it, body-gliding all the way to the ground. These sequences would make for a good blockbuster... if we were living in 1995. There's nothing in here that really makes it stand out from the other summer blockbusters, or any other action adventure movie for that matter. Not even from the original Tomb Raider.
Director Jan de Bont has had a tough time delivering anything worthy since Twister. He's now become synonymous with awful films. Attach his name to the Tomb Raider franchise and you have a guaranteed mess. It doesn't look like he's progressed or learnt anything from his mistakes. The story sticks with being simple. The shootouts feel mediocre and uninspired. There isn't even an amazing all out finale with a massive explosion. In fact I don't seem to recall any explosions, not even from myself. Well I guess the lack of big bangs make it a little different from the norm, but since no good comes from it the film still deserves to have a dirty nappy thrown in its face. To de Bont's credit there is some lush scenery to look at as Lara goes from Greece to China to Africa. There are also a few good "jump out of your seat" scares as well as the crazy sight of Lara riding a motorcycle upon the Great Wall of China. It's shots like these that make up the icing on the cake. Unfortunately that cake comes from the reduced section in Sainsbury's. Hopefully de Bont has killed the franchise for good. There may still be hope for him yet. Who knows? I don't.
Cradle of Life is a totally unnecessary sequel to Tomb Raider. You know life would be so much better if this film didn't exist. Chances are that it'll disappear very quickly and end up forgotten, only to resurface on Channel 5 in a few years time. Still, at least Angelina Jolie puts in some effort, which means that a lot of teenage boys will do the same.
Rating - 3 out of 10
Points of Interest:
·Made on a budget of $90 million, the film made it to No. 4 at the US box office taking $21.7 million during its opening weekend. In the UK it opened at No. 3, taking £1.5 million. The film took $131.8 million worldwide.
·The film was banned in China as they felt that it damaged the country's reputation, portraying it in a negative way.
·Paramount cited the Playstation 2 game, Tomb Raider - The Angel of Darkness, as the reason why the film didn't perform so well, saying that the game had received a lot of bad press and people might have confused that with the film. Paramount obviously doesn't have the Lara sized balls to admit that the first film was pretty rubbish to begin with so it's unlikely that those who saw it are going to want to see the sequel.
·At some points in the film, Angelina Jolie's stunt double was played by a man. He had to wear a pair of false breasts and have his "bits" strapped down, so the audience couldn't tell that the stunt double was a man!
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