Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) - Film Review
Starring: Angelina Jolie, Iain Glen, Daniel Craig & Jon Voight
Screenplay: Patrick Massett & John Zinman
Directed By: Simon West
Certificate: 12
Like
many people, the Tomb Raider franchise
formed a big part of my childhood. It's the game series that's stuck
with me for most of my life, with Tomb Raider: Legend being
one of the first games I ever played, and it remains one of my
favourites to this day. The release of a Tomb Raider film
in 2001 starring Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft, if I'd been old enough
at the time to appreciate the series, would have been such a
brilliant idea. At the time of release, the game series was starting
to stagnate, and the franchise was in need of a shot in the arm if it
was to survive. While the film wasn't quite the shot in the arm that
it needed, is there still anything worthwhile to be found here?
An
ancient artefact comes to life in the home of archaeologist and tomb
raider, Lara Croft. The artefact is needed to find the location of
two halves of an object known as the Triangle of Light – an object
that grants phenomenal power over time and space to the user. When
Lara sets out to find the Triangle of Light, in the hopes of being
able to speak to her deceased father, she soon learns the Illuminati
are in pursuit of it too, and is drawn into a world of planetary
alignments, conspiracies and ruthlessness.
When
released, responses to Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
were...negative, to say the
least, and not without good reason. But let's look first to the areas
where the film succeeds, because believe it or not, there are some
things to like here. By far the best element here, is Angelina
Jolie's on-point leading performance as Lara Croft. Looking back, I
honestly can't think of anyone better at the time to play this role.
Not only does she look like the original Lara, but she manages to
embody pretty much everything about her. Obviously she has the
beauty, but also the intelligence and the love for danger and tomb
raiding. Little details such as the smiles Angelina Jolie gives when
involved in various shootouts, manage to put this across, and feel
undeniably like something a real-life Lara would do. A lot of
preparation, training and effort has clearly gone into this role, and
I think there's even been some studying of the games: the English
accent is great and many of her movements resemble those found in the
games.
Something
else that's successfully brought across from the games is the sense
of action and excitement. The film features throughout plenty of
dumb, silly, exaggerated yet oh-so-fun action sequences. They're
goofy and overdone so much that it's here where the film is at its
most entertaining. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
even gets off to a great
start thanks to its action, with the opening scene seeing Lara face
off with a giant robot in what appears to be a tomb. Later on, when
Croft Manor gets raided by armed soldiers, Lara manages to dodge
their fire and take one of them out by performing a wall-run around
the room, while an onslaught of bullets follows her. It's so dumb,
but I defy you to tell me that it's not entertaining.
What
isn't entertaining, and what I wish had been taken out of the script
before filming, is its frequently unfunny moments and poor attempts
at injecting comic relief. The worst offenders of this are Lara's
butler, “Hilly”, and tech guy, Bryce. These two get on my nerves
so much – they contribute absolutely nothing to the plot, and
they're both here purely for the sake of comedy – comedy that falls
flat on its face. The problem isn't just exclusive to them, as there
are plenty more moments where the film undermines itself with lame
comedy. Take for example, the scene I mentioned earlier of Lara doing
battle with a giant robot. It's a great sequence, but it ends with
Lara inserting a memory card into the robot called “Lara's
Party Mix”, and the robot
playing music … it's so out of character and so unneeded! My
problem isn't with the scene ending and being revealed to have been a
test run all along, it's the fact that it had to end in such a
horrible and cringey way.
I
suppose this is all just a symptom of a bigger problem – the
ludicrous, absurd plot. It sounds like such a fantastic idea for a
Tomb Raider film, to
put Lara in a race against the Illuminati, but when you add so many
more elements including planetary alignments, solar eclipses,
mysterious clocks and an artefact called the “Triangle Of
Light”, it all gets too silly.
The stronger entries to the game series managed to balance fun,
action and absurdity with a sense of intelligence, and crucially,
it's this intelligence that the film is lacking. The script as it is
here might make a decent comic, or Tomb Raider spin-off,
but it really needed to dial it down for the film. Matters aren't
helped by all the unnecessary additions to the story. For example,
Lara sees to have a love-hate relationship with fellow tomb raider,
Alex West, played by a pre-James Bond Daniel
Craig. While Daniel Craig's American accent leaves a lot to be
desired, I find myself asking why he was here, as he doesn't seem to
add much to the overall plot. I ended up asking pretty much the same
about why Lara's father, Richard Croft, was here (although it was a
nice touch that Angelina Jolie's real-life father was cast in the
role). Some characters were more successful though, such as Iain Glen
as Powell. Powell was the most typical bad guy you could ask for, but
Iain Glen relishes the role and manages to bring a far better sense
of fun than many other characters manage to
The
production design for Lara Croft: Tomb Raider is
generally quite good, and along with the incredibly fun and
exaggerated action sequences, the film falls into the position of
being decent-looking, if mindless entertainment. The set design,
particularly when it comes to Lara's home and the grand tomb sets, is
strong, as is the location work in Cambodia. It remains true to the
spirit of the original games, and it's great to see a live-action
Lara running through the Cambodian jungle, or battling animated
statues in ancient tombs. If there's one technical aspect I'm
somewhat mixed towards, it's the direction from Simon West. In less
intense moments, the direction is fine enough, but during the
climactic scenes, it has a tendency to become a little too frantic
and makes use of just a few too many cuts. But when you can make out
what's going on, the action remains enjoyable.
So
what can we take away from Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
at the end of the day? Well it's far from being a good film, and it
has many, many flaws throughout its run time. However, I wouldn't be
quite so quick to give it the critical mauling it's generally
received. Sit and enjoy it at the time, preferably with friends who
can laugh along with how absurd it is, and you'll likely enjoy
yourself. Think about it afterwards for more than a second … and it
falls to pieces. It has its looks, lead character and action
sequences nailed, but I was really hoping for more from a Tomb
Raider film. I wanted to call it
as good as the games, and say that it's a worthwhile cinematic
experience, but it sadly falls short of that.
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
5/10