Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (Angelina Jolie, Jon Voight) 1/2
I'm not much of a "gamer". I believe the technical term is being born with two left thumbs. From time to time over the past ten years, I have played a little bit of N64's Mario Kart and Goldeneye, I have played a bit of "Spear of Destiny" on my dad's old computer, and I have played a few "Jedi Power Battles" and NHL games on the Sony Playstation. Had I been more of a "gamer", I would probably have enjoyed Tomb Raider a bit more.
The movie-goer in me whispers not to nitpick such a whimsical and fantastical movie, and for the first third of it, I was able to suspend a lot of disbelief and allow myself to be swept up in the Bruce Wayne-ish world of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Then the movie descended into silliness and cliche, and while some parts were fun, I can't really recommend it.
Angelina Jolie plays the moody female loner who prefers shapely shirts and shorts to stately dresses. She's the kind of woman who can surf on a giant, swinging stone steeple (yes, there is actually a scene in the movie) and make it look half fun. As Croft, Jolie never really jumps emotionally into the part, which in my opinion is a wise decision. If Indiana Jones sobbed miserably after each of his cohorts was tortured to death, we just wouldn't be as interested. Jolie keeps her distance from the other characters, and this in turn allows her, as an Oscar-winning actress, to ignore some of the more unbelievable points of the script. Also, from what limited knowledge I have of the game, Jolie physically looks the part of Croft and she seems to be having fun onscreen.
What nearly drags Tomb Raider to a dead halt is the overwrought sequences involving Croft's dead father (sleepwalkingly played by Jolie's real life father, Jon Voight). These scenes, albeit few and far between, are so blatantly ripped from the movie Contact, I could imagine some plagiarism actions taken against the filmmakers. There is also a really lame subplot about a hokey group called the Illuminati that serves only to have a lot of menacing looking guys have plans of world domination.
I enjoyed the action in Tomb Raider and some of the supporting performances, in particular Noah Taylor as Croft's loyal hacker friend, were good, but today's action movies need that je ne sais quoi to elevate them above other action movies, and I just had a very familiar feeling of deja vu every step of the way.
