Lara Croft - Tomb Raider (2001)

 Lara Croft has been Screwed
I've been with Lara Croft since the first Tomb Raider game--the version for Sony Playstation--and I can tell you this is not only a great way to screw up a perfectly good setting and a perfectly good story, but also a great way to screw up a main character. Sure, I believe in evolution; by the time this movie began production, Lara Croft had been the protagonist of every game in the Playstation series FIVE times at this point.

First off, the first game was the only one with this combination: an interesting character, a good plot, interesting dialogue, an interesting script, a music score that works, an interesting setting albeit a not-so-action-oriented one but nonetheless immersive and captivating, mostly non-fictional-type enemies (like birds, bats, tigers, you know, animals of the forest, and a few humans too), a "free-roaming" three-dimensional world, and even good voice acting. This combination was a real development for videogames because, before the first game released in 1996--1995 on another system--not many of these things happened. But, the quality of all of these thing noted here had changed in the sequel games. Some things had just-as-good quality and some things were not just-as-good, depending on the sequel. As a series, the first game was really a push for Lara as a character. It is essential to carry the traits of that character forward into the sequels. But, after five games on the Playstation, if anyone's going to make a movie and call it "Tomb Raider," if anyone's going to depict the titanic "Lara Croft," one must be faithful, regardless of whether or not its writers decide to include the transformations in the sequel games or not--it doesn't matter.

At the heart of things, Lara Croft is the daughter of an English aristocrat. I can't tell you why anyone would ever think that Angelina Jolie, as likable and sexy as she is, would fit this character. Does Jolie even attempt to put on an English accent? No. So then, I guess none of the storylined traits exist, and this film is solely about selling tickets and purifying the entire visual scenery when, in the game, this is not the purified thing. And, in the game, it is Lara who appears sanitary only to prove otherwise, and that this is an important function of the character. In this film, the character Lara Croft may as well have been the daughter of a New York City crack addict, because there is no sharing resemblance to the original game's ideas.

The Tomb Raider game was a genre piece. It was only like the first ten minutes of the first film in the Indiana Jones series--or the protagonist of the old Atari, Activision game Pitfall--but it was more particularly supposed to be like, in plot, a marginally science fiction piece similar to the first ten minutes of The Fifth Element or the last hour-and-a-half of Stargate. The plot of the first game was about a rugged and youthful daughter of a wealthy aristocrat who did not share in the interests of dirty corporate politics, and so her character juxtaposes them. The story did not have Lara hating aristocratic wealth, but rather accepting it because she had been born into it, but with an appetite for adventure and the means to get there, financially, physically, and intellectually. She's the kind of girl who must rather have been an Oxford University student of archeology than a politician like her parents--or whatever they did to make money, probably inheriting it and some titles from the English monarchy as well. It just doesn't make sense to dispose of this past! It's in Lara's genetic makeup. One can't just remove these things and make a good movie starring Lara Croft; it's more than that.

Also is the problem of just plain bad decisions all around about the sanitized visuals and sanitized plot. This film is just an action piece with dopey characters that Lara must avoid. This isn't what Lara started out doing! There were dopey characters, but Lara used to be an educated young woman. In this film, she is just a female Rambo who likes caves. There's no excuse for what she does in this film. It's just stupidity. Too much has been changed and, cinematically, the movie itself is either boring or has too many flaws. It possesses very little of the originality in the first game, a coherent plot involving something better than a bunch of stupid moron-minded humans with the animals of the forest missing, all because Lara's gone and changed into James Bond now. This film is a stupid action piece without a shred of credibility or intrigue, two things that abundantly made the first game so memorable. April 20, 2008

 tomb raider
the movie is a new classic. it has all the eliments of a great blockbuster. action, guns, tech gadgets. and a good and evilcombined and a map to a treasure at the end of the movie. it's 007 mixed with indiana jones, but one obvious thing a tough aluring lara croft as the main character... a must for the blu-ray collection!!!!! February 27, 2008

 Worst Blu ray I have seen.
There isn't much I can say about this disk except it is the worst looking blu ray disc I have seen. This is really grainy looking. Full Metal Jacket which is 20 years older than this looks better. February 10, 2008

 extremely grainy blu-ray picture
I won't bore you with my views on Tomb Raider the film. Chances are if you are here researching this to buy, you've already fully formed your own opinion on this. Why people feel the need to post lenghty movie reviews here I'll never understnd. But here is something that you might find useful to know: the blu-ray edition is a real mess. This happened to be the first film that I put into my new blue-ray player to view on my new 1080p tv and I was shocked. The film is shockingly grainy. I could see all kinds of grain and noise and garbage in the picture through much of the movie. It looked like a really poorly made standard def movie. I started playing with my player and tv thinking surely I must have not set the right options on it or something. Either that or my equipment must be horribly defective in some way. It wasn't until I tried a couple other blu-ray disks that I realized what a poor transfer this disk is.

If you are a big Tomb Raider fan, you still might enjoy watching this (after all, we've all gotten used to standard-def equipment over the years). But if you are looking for a film to showcase your fancy blu-ray player and tv and get that "theater-like" experience, then definitely avoid getting this disk. February 2, 2008

 Oh Gag Me
Although you have Angelina Jolie as gorgeously hot as she is, travelling around the world as a kickass adventurer, Lara Croft - Tomb Raider ignored the great elements that made the Tomb Raider video games what they are today. For example, the movie in no way follows the way the video game works. Plus, Angelina Jolie (as hot as she is) COMPLETELY butchers the character of Lara Croft. How, you might ask? The character was held back. While in this movie, she's kind of nice, in the video game, she is MERCILESS, and much more tactical than in the movie. She was way too nice to be Lara Croft - Tomb Raider.

Stay away from this movie if you LOVE the video games!! It's a real downer. January 4, 2008

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