TOMB RAIDER:

THE CRADLE OF LIFE

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: sensuality, violence, thematic elements

Rated:

Despite being blasted by the critics for making a "poorly written, video-game thriller" for the original Tomb Raider, the studios have brought back Lara Croft for one more adventure. The brilliant British lady (Angelina Jolie) has more on her mind than afternoon tea with the prince of Wales. She doesn't care about clothes shopping or boyfriends. Her mind is singularly and wholly obsessed with the recapture of artifacts. Her latest expedition has led her underwater to a lost city recently uncovered by an earthquake. Setting out to recover a mysterious golden orb thought to contain secret powers, Lara and her team are intercepted by rival archeologists. They steal the orb, shoot her companions, and leave her to die. But the young woman is determined and makes it to the surface with enough images of the orb to recreate part of it in the computer.

The orb has been stolen by Jonathan Reiss (Ciarán Hinds), winner of the Nobel Prize and one of the most brilliant scientists in the world. He's recently gone rogue, selling instant deadly viruses to the highest bidder. He cares nothing for anyone except himself. What he's searching for is the legendary Pandora's Box, which will unleash a plague upon the nation of whomever opens it. The box's history is bound primarily in myth, dating back to its opening by one of the Pharaohs of Egypt. His armies were completely devastated (possibly an evolutionary twist on the Red Sea?). Fearing what the box was capable of, the pharaoh sent it with one of his men to be buried in a foreign land. It was discovered thousands of years later with similar effects. But the Roman this time took precautions, taking it back to its original resting place and creating the orb as a map.

Lara knows the orb is in the hands of Chinese renegades. When the British government ask her to undertake its recovery, she requests the help of Terry (Gerard Butler), a former flame and now prisoner, responsible for the deaths of his entire agent crew. With permission to kill him at any time if she fears treachery, Lara must deal with her resurfacing feelings for him while outwitting Reiss' men and tracking down the orb. The plot is fairly simple and threadbare, basically just a means to a bunch of fantastic action sequences. Earthquakes, shark attacks, gunfights, giant statues, and helicopters. If you're going in for mindless entertainment, it's worthwhile. Otherwise your brain will need stimulation beyond visual effects and computer imagery. The acting is decent and the soundtrack memorable. Some of the ending elements reminded me of other films in the same genre. One disappointment was the lack of true involvement by Lara's butler. The good-natured, hilarious young British valet had some of the best comic moments in the first film; here he's seen only a few times.

True to form, Lara is back and more violent than ever. The first movie didn't use guns to as large of an extent as this one does. Many people are shot and killed, mowed down through glass window panes. They're also eaten by monsters in a shadowy mountain pass leading to the place of concealment. (Some form of spirit gods sent to protect the box.) They loom out of trees and snatch up Reiss' men. One man is beheaded (unseen) and his headless body flung around before being consumed. (It's all in the shadows, so there's not much detail.) They are also knifed. Lara shows compassion on a man who intended to kill her, knifing him in the arm rather than anywhere else. But when he shoots at her as she's leaving, she finishes him off by hurling the blade into his chest. She becomes bloody after having her face shoved onto a table covered with broken glass. A poisoned man spits up blood while Reiss watches dispassionately. The villain comes to a gruesome end after falling into a vat of acid. (We see his skeletal body thrashing around before he dies.)

Sensuality is less than the first film, comprised of only a few mild comments to intimate Terry and Lara were once lovers, and a single scene where they make out passionately. Believing him to be a traitor, Lara kisses him deeply while they roll around on the floor. She then handcuffs him to the bed and makes her departure. Lara wears a lot of tight outfits but most of them are modest with the exception of her bikini (seen only briefly) and diving outfit (which reveals her nipples when wet). A romantic moment turns violent when Terry slaps her across the face. There are a couple of mild abuses of deity and a half dozen mild profanities, British and otherwise. It's not abominable filmmaking but it's not particularly memorable either. In reflecting to write this review, I wondered if my memory had faded. But then I realized there simply isn't enough plot to recall; it was overshadowed by action scenes. Mindless entertainment, yes, but not so bad as to steer less choosy thrill-seekers away.

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