Angelina Jolie Saves the World in Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life
Written: Jul 31 '03 (Updated Oct 13 '07)
Product Rating:
Pros: Angelina Jolie. Lots of action. Interesting plot
Cons: Not as good as the first Tomb Raider movie
The Bottom Line: Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life was an entertaining movie. It wasn't as good as the first Tomb Raider movie. Fans of it or Angelina Jolie may enjoy it.
dragonfire88's Full Review: Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life
In the summer of 2001, I saw the first Tomb Raider movie and I enjoyed it. I know a lot of people hated it, but I didn’t. There were some unbelievable things that happened in the movie, but that was ok with me. I’ve liked a lot of other unbelievable movies as well. I heard a while ago that there would be a sequel and I wanted to see it. I do like the character of Lara Croft, so I was looking forward to seeing Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. I did like the movie, but the first one was better.
Lara Croft was searching for a temple that had belonged to Alexander the Great. It was thought to have been destroyed, but Lara believed it was under the ocean off the coast of Greece. There was a recent earthquake and a change in the ocean current that directed her to the location. Three men were helping her on this expedition. Gus owned the boat. Jimmy and Nicholas dove with Lara.
Lara found what she was looking for. The inside of the temple wasn’t filled with water, so they were able to explore. Lara took several pictures. She discovered an orb and was retrieving it when some other men arrived. They killed Jimmy and Nicholas, tried to kill Lara, took the orb, and then disabled her way back to the surface before leaving. Lara did make it to the surface, only to discover that Gus’s boat had been destroyed.
Jonathan Reiss developed biological weapons. He was meeting with a group of people to tell them about a new weapon. Chen Lo worked for Reiss and was taking the orb to him. Lara was very upset about her friend’s being killed. She had Bryce working with the photos she took of the orb to try to figure out what it meant. Two MI6 agents turned up to talk to Lara. The orb was supposed to be a map to lead to Pandora’s Box. The box was hidden in the Cradle of Life. The box was supposed to contain something that would kill millions of people.
Lara needed Terry Sheridan to get her to Chen Lo. Terry was a former military man who turned traitor and was in prison. He and Lara had been involved at the time he did that. Lara managed to arrange for Terry to be released to help her. They set off for China to find Chen Lo and the orb. Reiss was focused in on getting the orb so he could get Pandora’s Box and open it. Lara had friends in different places around the world that helped her on her search for the orb and Pandora’s Box.
CAST
Angelina Jolie - Lara Croft
Gerard Butler - Terry Sheridan
Ciaran Hinds - Jonathon Reiss
Chris Barrie - Hillary
Noah Taylor - Bryce
Djimon Housou - Kosa
Til Schweiger - Sean
Simon Yam - Chen Lo
Jonathon Coyne - Gus
Daniel Caltagirone - Nicholas
Fabiano Martell - Jimmy
Jan De Bont - Director
Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life was released on July 25, 2003. The movie was rated PG-13 and just under two hours long. There wasn’t that much swearing in the movie. Lara was from England and she used a few phrases that may be curses, but since I’m not from England I really don’t know. This wasn’t a movie that children should see because of the violence that was in it. Younger children would probably be bored by the movie anyway.
I did enjoy Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. The movie was entertaining to me, but it did have some flaws. I wasn’t really bored by what was going on, but it did seem to drag a bit at times. There were a lot of action scenes throughout the movie that did keep things interesting, though all the shooting did get old. I think this was a mindless action movie. There were some good action scenes in the movie, though none of them really had me on the edge of my seat like some other movies have done. The movie was full of slow motion shots during the action scenes. I am really tired of seeing those types of shots. This wasn’t a suspenseful movie.
There was a lot of violence in Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, though it wasn’t really graphic and gory like Bad Boys II was. Lara did a lot of shooting in this movie. Other characters also did a lot of shooting. I think there was more shooting than there was in the first Tomb Raider, but I can’t remember for sure. There was also some fighting at different times in the movie. Characters were injured and some died. I don’t think that the movie violence was extreme, but others may not agree with me. People who don’t like to see any violence in movie shouldn’t see this one.
Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life was based on the Tomb Raider video games. Those games were very popular. I did try a few of them, but I didn’t get very far with them. I was good at walking Lara into walls though. I just wasn’t good with the games, but I liked the idea behind them. The first Tomb Raider game was one of the best movies based on a video game that I’ve seen. There have been some very bad movies made based on video games. Anyone else actually sit through Super Mario Brothers? The Tomb Raider games had more of a plot than some other games that have been made into movies to begin with, and I think the plot of the games was interesting. The first Tomb Raider movie did have some flaws, but I really enjoyed it. I did enjoy the new movie as well, but it wasn’t as good. It seemed like there was something missing. There were some unbelievable things that happened again - which I think is normal for movies based on video games - though some of the unbelievable things were of a different nature this time. It seemed like this movie was trying to distance itself more from the video games. The first movie wasn’t a comedy, but it had some things throughout the movie that I thought were funny. There weren’t as many of those things in this movie. It was more serious. For this type of movie, being too serious isn’t a good thing.
Lara wore some form fitting outfits in Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life again. She didn’t ware the short shorts from the first movie or the tank tops, but she had some other close fitting outfits, especially the dive suit from the beginning of the movie. That’s the outfit from the movie poster. There was no nudity in the movie, though a little bit of skin was shown a few times. There was one scene that contained some kissing, but there wasn’t an actual sex scene in the movie.
Lara Croft was a bit like a female Indiana Jones. She was interested in archeology, and that interest got her in dangerous situations at times. She traveled around the world to find lost artifacts. If those artifacts fell into the wrong hands, it would be dangerous. Indiana Jones was an archaeologist and a professor. He also traveled around the world to find artifacts to save the world. Lara did more fighting than Indiana did. He rarely used a gun, and she almost always had guns with her. I like the Indiana Jones movies and I like the Tomb Raider movies. I think the Indiana Jones movies were better though. I like seeing a female in a role like this.
There were some special effects in Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. The movie didn’t seem to be loaded down with effects, but they were used in several scenes. They were well done. I’m pretty sure that some things related to the orb were done with effects of some kind. There were some things near the end of the movie that I think were done with CGI. Because of what the things were, it was obvious that they were effects, but they were well done.
There was very little character development in Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. Lara was fairly well developed in the first movie, but there wasn’t much more development in this movie. In the first movie, there was a lot in it about Lara and her relationship with her missing father. That did add some depth to her character. There was nothing like that in this movie. Her father was never even mentioned. A big deal was made about Lara’s feelings for her father in the first movie, so it just didn’t seem right to me that she didn’t even mention him once. Bryce and Hillary were in even less of the movie this time, and I was disappointed by that. They provided some of the funniest moments in the first movie. There was very little of Lara’s huge home shown this time as well. There were some new characters in this movie, but there were flat and one dimensional. Terry was in more of the movie than the other new characters, but he was still flat.
The acting was good in Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. Angelina Jolie was perfect to play Lara Croft. She was Lara. No one else could play the role. She actually looked like Lara did in the video games. She did talk with an English accent in the movie, but it sounded very natural, and it didn’t fade in and out during the movie. She was wonderful, though she didn’t have the best material to work with. I do like the character of Lara. No one else was in as much of the movie as Angelina Jolie. The other actors were also good in their roles, but nothing really stood out about their performances.
CHARACTERS
Lara Croft - She traveled around the world finding missing artifacts. She lived in a huge castle in England. She did different things for training around her home. She was very good with a gun. She was a talented woman. She enjoyed dangerous situations.
Bryce - He worked with Lara. He did any computer research that was needed and kept her gadgets working.
Hillary - Lara’s butler. He was very calm most of the time.
Terry Sheridan - Former boyfriend of Lara’s. He was in prison because he became a traitor. He knew the how to find Chen Lo. Terry seemed to still have feelings for Lara, but he did a few things that were questionable.
Jonathon Reiss - He’d won a Nobel Prize and then started to make biological weapons. He wanted Pandora’s Box to use what was in it to kill most of the people on the planet. He enjoyed killing people.
Chen Lo - He was the leader of some sort of gang. He and his men took the orb from Lara to give it to Reiss. Chen Lo and Terry have a past.
Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life was an entertaining movie, but I liked the first Tomb Raider movie better. Fans of that movie may like this one even though it isn’t as good. People who didn’t like the first movie really shouldn’t bother with this one unless they are die-hard fans of Angelina Jolie. I liked this movie a little more than Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, but not as much as Bad Boys II. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Finding Nemo are the best of the movies I have seen so far this summer.
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