Plot: What’s it about?
If there was ever a movie more tailor-made for a person, it’s Tomb Raider and it’s made for Angelina Jolie. Based on the ever-popular video game, the busty vixen by the name of Lara Croft (Angelina Jolie) makes being an archaeologist of sorts, actually interesting (not that being an archeologist isn’t interesting already). There was doubt as to who would play the title role, but it seemed that Jolie’s fame was rising just as the movie was being cast. Being an Academy Award-Winning actress didn’t hurt matters any. As many know, Angelina Jolie is the daughter of another Oscar-Winner, Jon Voight. Voight has a part in the movie as, strangely enough, Croft’s father. Don’t be fooled, though, as he has less than ten minutes of screen time. This is her movie! That being said, there’s only one other thing I can think to say that’s good about this movie. I’ll save that for later and hopefully try to end on a good note. The plot seems to be thrown together at the last minute and the performances are not that good. It seems that everyone involved knew they were in a “guaranteed” hit/event movie and it seemed to stay that way until the ending credits rolled. Also, movies based on video games don’t exactly have the best track record at the cineplex, remember ‘Street Fighter’, ‘Super Mario Brothers’ and ‘Double Dragon’? Didn’t think so…Still, Tomb Raider was a success at the box office as was ‘Mortal Kombat’ (the only other movie based on a video game that made a profit). If you can suspend your disbelief, I mean really suspend it, then give Tomb Raider a try. The plot may be brief, but they didn’t have a lot to work with!
As Lara Croft sits in her majestic palace battling robots that are trying to kill her (for fun, no less), the time is upon the world when the planets will align. Now I don’t know for a fact when this will happen in real life, or if it has ever happened (or ever will), but this is a movie, so we’ll proceed. Lara had lost her father some fifteen years earlier, when he simply disappeared. Lord Croft (Jon Voight) was doing research on the very same phenomenon. The “bad guys”, known as the Illuminati aim to take over the Earth by conducting a ritual at the exact moment of a once-every-5,000-years planetary alignment. To accomplish this they must locate the two halves of an ancient triangular metal plate and join them together at just the right moment. Lara’s job, of course, is to prevent this all from happening by destroying both halves of the triangle — but logic might say that if she only destroyed one half of the triangle, it would have the same effect and have the added benefit of getting us out through the movie in half the time. Interesting…Heading this effort is the head ‘bad guy’ Powell (Iain Glen) and his assistant Alex West (Daniel Craig), an archaeologist-for-hire who apparently once had an affair with Lara and wants desperately to resume it. Is this really going to happen? Are the evil Illuminati going to take over the Earth? Or will one lone archeologist, with two pistols strapped to her naked thighs, have the gumption to foil their plan?
Tomb Raider will certainly not garner many awards, but with today’s Hollywood, who knows. It’s predictable and unimaginative. Now onto that “good part” that I promised earlier in the review. Ok, let’s face it…we all know Lara Croft because of her ample chest. Even in the video game, she looks like Dolly Parton in a tank top. Who better than Angelina Jolie to fill (no pun intended) her shoes? If it’s a quick peek that you’re looking for, you’ll get it. If you’re going to sit through the entire movie on the off chance that you’ll see her naked, don’t bother. Pick up a copy of ‘Gia’ instead. While I don’t doubt her talents as an actress, there are females who can carry an action movie and those who can’t. Granted this movie is not that great, but it did make plenty of money (and the ending just sets it up for Tomb Raider 2). So, will we see more of Lara Croft in the future? Count on it, will it be better than the original? I’d hate to see it if its worse…Strike one.
Video: How does it look?
It’s been about four years since I’ve really sat down and watched this movie and let’s just say that time heals all wounds. I broke out my old standard DVD of this movie and I stand by my comments from then, it wasn’t really that great and certainly had room for improvement. As I said about time healing all wounds…well let’s just say that the HD-DVD healed any wounds that were lacking in the transfer. The image appears cleaned up in just about every aspect and, as we might expect, the detail is off the scale. And let me just say that if there’s ever a movie we want in High Definition, it’s anything with Angelina Jolie wearing spandex. ‘Nuff said. The 2.40:1 HD transfer is so much better than the standard DVD, there’s really no comparison. The flesh tones are natural and warm, edge enhancement is gone and there’s just a…clarity to the whole thing that really left me wanting more (and, coincidentally, there is a sequel but no on HD just yet). Suffice it to say that whatever flaws existed in the standard DVD – they’ve been corrected and then some.
Audio: How does it sound?
“Lara Croft: Tomb Raider†is an action, bust-em-up kind of movie and as such we know that we’ll be getting plenty of action and plenty of awesome sound, right? Correct. The new Dolby Digital Plus soundtrack does a great job of providing us with a great sound stage that only lets up on just a few occasions. Whether it’s the crispness of Jolie’s English accent or the debris flying through the surround speakers, the soundtrack delivers on all levels. Now I will say that the previous Dolby Digital 5.1 track was by no means bad, but like the video this has been given new life with the advent of HD-DVD. As with all of Paramount’s other HD releases, there’s a DTS soundtrack that I matched on par with the Dolby Digital Plus mix. In the select scenes in which I listened to both, they sounded identical.
Supplements: What are the extras?
This HD-DVD ports over all of the supplements from the previous DVD and we start out with a commentary by Director Simon West. Contrary to what you might think, it’s not two hours of him saying “I’m sorry, I’m sorry”, but he is rather proud of his work and I’m sure that Paramount is proud of him for giving them a hit movie. Being the solo commentator, there are some lulls in his talking, but on the whole it’s a good track. Crafting Lara Croft is a featurette that shows how Angelina Jolie got in shape, literally, for the role of Lara Croft. As Croft, she incorporates several styles of fighting and her commitment to the role is admirable, in the sense that she took classes for three months prior to when filming began. The stunts of Tomb Raider shows just that. Naturally, an Academy Award-Winning actress won’t do all the stunts and CGI can only take care of so much. While not the most interesting of featurettes, it delivers the goods and sheds a bit of light on all the stunt work that happens throughout the movie. Visual Effects of Tomb Raider is also to the point, in eight different sequences we see how the various types of digital effects made (or were supposed to make) the movie come to life. Finally, Are You Game takes a look at the Tomb Raider video game, the one that started it all. Should we be mad? Only kidding…Still, it is impressive that a video game can have such a far-reaching effect into our mainstream culture. Rounding out the supplements that non DVD-ROM people can access is a music video by U2 entitled “Elevation”. I still hold U2 in high regard, even if they were part of this movie. An alternate title sequence is also shown, but I personally like the one that they used; evidently so did they, as that’s why they used it. Lastly, four deleted scenes are shown and it’s no wonder why they were deleted. As the movie seemed to drag on as it did, every deleted scene is a welcome sigh of relief. Now a bit of a low point here (just when you thought you couldn’t get lower, I know…), there are a number of DVD-ROM features. Now they aren’t the most impressive of features, but not everyone is equipped with a DVD-ROM enabled computer, perhaps Paramount is trying to push this technology? Still, links to the website, a Tomb Raider timeline, a Tomb Raider Chronicles game demo and an access to the online experience are included. While I found Tomb Raider to be predictable and boring, it does sound great and has a fair amount of supplements. If this is your thing, then you’re well-equipped.
