Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life (2003) Synopsis:
Archaeologist and explorer extraordinaire, Lara Croft, journeys to a temple which has sunken underwater in search of lost treasures. During her expedition, Croft happens upon a sphere that contains the mythical Pandora's Box, only to have it stolen from her by Chen Lo, the leader of a Chinese crime syndicate. Chen Lo is in league with a bad guy named Reiss, who wants to use the priceless Box as a doomsday weapon.
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life (2003) Movie Review:
Based on the popular video game, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider became a surprise hit during the summer of 2001. Though the film was an action cheesefest, Angelina Jolie’s appealing kick-butt heroine won over some audiences. The film was a bad movie, but a guilty pleasure that was also bashed by critics.
Now comes along the sequel, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. This film tries to keep the same charisma as the first film, but it is utterly horrible and nothing close to being a guilty pleasure. Over the top action director Jan De Bont replaces the subdued Simon West as director of this installment. The film once again follows the gorgeous, self-confident, archaeologist/adventurer hero Lara Croft (Angelina Jolie) on another mission to save the world. In the first film Croft was after some type of time machine or portal, this time she is trying to prevent a sophisticated terrorist (Ciaran Hands) from finding the mythological Pandora’s Box, which has the power to release pain and suffering into the world. In the opeing scenes, Croft recovers a golden orb that holds the key to the location of Pandora’s Box. Of course, the evil terrorist steals the orb from Croft and then she is on her way to chasing him around the world to recover it. Her two sidekicks, the butler Hillary (Christopher Barrie) and the technician inventor guru Bryce (Noah Taylor) arise once again to assist her. Croft also enlists the services of a mercenary traitor named Terry (Gerard Butler), who also use to be her lover. The adventure begins with Croft and her ex-beau going across vast countries to find Pandora’s Box and stop a madman from bringing chaos into the world.
One of the first examples that this film is just terrible, is when the evil bad guy played by Ciaran Hands infects one of his men with the Ebola virus and then utters the line, “This is the sound of a traitor dying,” as the infected man spits up blood. The script by Dean Georgaris is dreadful and it seems that the actors would have been better off improvising. Jan De Bont takes his liberties with trying to show cool tricks and effective action scenes, but the end result of his work is dull and not the least bit exciting. He even opens the film with the credits across the water like he did in Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997). De Bont was first a cinematographer on many action films before breaking through as a director with the hit Speed (1994). Though Speed is exceptional action thriller, De Bont’s work as director ever since has not been that competent (Twister (1996), Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997), The Haunting (1999)). As this pitiful film progresses, the action gets more boring and you will feel like taking a nap through the last half. The first film was pretty bad as well, but it was at least exciting. The sequences in this sequel just seem to be reaching for so much, which include motorcycles riding on The Great Wall of China, squirrel like costumes for the heroes to glide off a skyscraper from danger, and tree-like monsters in Africa that look like trolls. In addition to, the over the top action is just too much to handle, such as one scene with a helicopter trying to land in a square, Croft punching a shark, or her pole-vaulting onto a helicopter.
The one bright spot of this film is Angelina Jolie herself as Lara Croft. She is a perfect cast and holds the screen as the likeable character once again. Jolie is very sexy and just striking with her precise performance. The talented Gerard Butler is wasted in his supporting role, as Croft’s love interest Terry. Djimon Hounsou is wasted even more with his amounting to nothing role as Croft’s African guide Koso.
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life is just a typical bad summer blockbuster. Angelina Jolie is a joy to watch again as Croft, but this film has no pulse or electricity to make it a guilty pleasure like its predecessor.
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Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life (2003) review written by: Bailey Henderson
7th September, 2008 
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