Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)

I’m not a massive computer game fan, although I do massively enjoy the Lego Star Wars / Batman / Indiana Jones games (I’m playing the Indy sequel at the moment!). Andrew, on the other hand, loves his X-Box (and his PS2 before it died) and has a particular fondness for the Tomb Raider series. It’s not the sort of game that appeals to me, but I like the idea as a movie. We’d both seen the first movie before, but not the sequel, so we decided to revisit the first before watching the next (makes sense, right?).

Angelina Jolie’s Lara Croft is ideal casting – it’s a shame that Keeley Hawes wasn’t asked to dub her voice as she does in the computer games, since Jolie’s Lara occasionally sounds a bit Australian, that is, when she actually gets any dialogue. It’s not a big talky role, it’s mostly action all the way… for Lara Croft anyway. The bad guy gets masses of stodgy exposition, as does Jolie’s real life father Jon Voight, playing Lara’s fictional (and deceased) father in flashback/dream sequences.

When there’s no action sequences the movie becomes very slow indeed, some may even say boring. The plot is so ho-hum and sub-Indiana Jones (perhaps not sub-Crystal Skull…) that the fight scenes are essential to hold an interest in proceedings. The opening fight, with Lara pitted against a killer robot, is good, but the one where Lara fends of a home invasion in her mansion is even better! There’s a good level of humour across the action sequences, that doesn’t necessarily work through the quieter moments.

Chris Barrie is amusing as Lara’s butler, but her techy sidekick is the wrong side of annoying far too often. And how weird is the Leslie Howard cameo?! One of the stranger bits of casting has American Jolie affecting an ‘English’ accent opposite English Daniel Craig and a spot-on American drawl. Craig is one of the best parts of the movie, and his ambiguous relationship with Lara is well played. I particularly enjoyed the scene where Lara pays a visit to him while he’s in the shower – the future Bond looks very buff, even before Casino Royale and those speedos.

The first Lara Croft movie is fun, but forgettable and inconsistent. I hope the sequel is better – although by the law of diminishing returns, I’m not holding out hope! There had better be some good fight scenes…