3/02/2014

Gamer Cinema: Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life


I think most people are aware that there was a really awful Tomb Raider movie starring Angelina Jolie back in 2001. And of course the amazing thing about it is the idea seemed like a no-brainer. It didn't have to be Oscar-worthy material. Just a hot girl shooting thugs and discovering treasure. It could've been Indiana Jones with a woman without much effort. Instead, it wasn't even National Treasure with a woman because it managed to be just to dumb and filled with horrible action sequences. Not really Angelina Jolie's fault as she played the role fine but it was still an awful film.

So yeah even though that flopped clearly those behind the film felt something was salvageable as they made a sequel titled the Cradle of Life (and apparently there were plans to go ahead with a third but Jolie didn't want to do the role anymore). The storyline itself is perfectly fine-Croft trots the globe looking for the "Cradle of Life" which is where all civilization began before an evil industrialist who is also looking for it because Pandora's Box is there and it has a plague he wants to unleash (seemingly for financial gain?). Anyways it's a throwaway excuse of a plot but for a film like this that's just fine.

And that's pretty much what this film is. Just fine. That it isn't a complete pile of garbage automatically makes it one of the better films based on a video game out there. The action sequences are perfectly functional if a little underwhelming, Jolie was still good as a real life Croft. It's the kind of perfectly competent yet forgettable action fare you often see on straight to video releases these days. Would I recommend it? Only in a sort of if there's aboslutely nothing else on and you are too lazy to grab the remote/controller and look for something else kind of way. But at least it wasn't extremely painful to sit through like any of Uwe Boll's cinematic efforts.

That's all for today, definitely look for a post about South Park: Stick of Truth in the next couple of days...

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