Director: Jan de Bont (Speed, Speed II, The Haunting)

Hollywood still persists with these bloated, lobotomised, lumbering concept movies. The first Lara Croft Tomb Raider movie was simply abysmal: an overly complicated piece of nonsense barely saved by a sterling performance from Angelina Jolie. Despite the awful script, crap special effects and lousy direction, Ms. Jolie played it like a champion. Throughout the whole mess she maintained a knowing twinkle in her eye that whispered to the audience, "We all know this is complete bollocks, but I am going to enjoy myself regardless." Budgeted at $80 million US, Tomb Raider (2001) pulled in respectable box-office returns, enough at least to tempt Paramount into taking another piece of the pie and establishing another dubious franchise.

With some minor word processing and a few casting changes, this $90 million US sequel serves up a story line that could have evolved into the next Indiana Jones or James Bond extravaganza. Lara Croft (Angelina Jolie) is chasing an orb artefact thingy that promises to reveal the location of the fabled Pandora's Box. She traces the orb's resting place to a sunken temple off the coast of Greece – a lost city has risen from the depths there after a recent earthquake. In typical Doctor Jones fashion, she is rewarded for her efforts by having it snatched from her manicured fingers by mercenaries working for neophyte world terrorist Jonathan Reiss (Ciarán Hinds). Exactly how nasty is this guy? Reiss is the kind of bloke who might accidentally run over a girl scout with his black sports car, then sue her poor family for the repair costs.

So when the artefact is nicked and her Greek diving pals are killed off because they can play no part in the remaining plot, Lara begins an extended chase that spans several continents to recover the ancient lava lamp, no doubt racking up a small fortune in frequent flyer points along the way. Assisting her once more are Hillary (Chris Barrie of Red Dwarf fame) and techno-geek Bryce (Noah Taylor), not to mention Lara's old flame Terry Sheridan (Gerard Butler from Reign of Fire and Dracula 2000). Besides matching Lara Croft stunt for stunt and kill for kill, beefcake Sheridan provides a spark of sexual tension and some muscular drool shots for audience members left unmoved by Angelina Jolie's feline graces.

Dare I say it, The Cradle of Life is better than its predecessor. Even with scenes like the one where Lara punches a poorly rendered CG shark on the nose in order to hitch a ride on its dorsal fin, or the bit where she pole-vaults from the top of a building to grab hold of a helicopter, the silly travelogue narrative kicks along nicely. The spotlight is kept squarely on the Lara Croft character – her name is in the title after all, and the movie is based on a successful computer game starring her alter ego. Luckily, Jolie again carries the film with ease, playing the lead role with even more confidence and earnestness this time around. Quite frankly, Cradle of Life would have been impossible to endure without her.

On the other hand, the continued presence of the villian Jonathan Reiss was pure tedium. Unlike the James Bond megalomaniacs, Reiss is entirely humourless and lacks even a shred of camp. He also managed to stay alive through a number of hair-raising gun fights – very difficult to swallow. In fact, what frustrated me the most about this film was the preponderance of gun battles and deadly weapon skirmishes where none of the key characters were shot dead or badly injured, despite being in the direct line of fire: hiding behind desks, driving cars, or flying helicopters. The computer game fantasy background is no excuse, and yet it appears to be the norm for many Hollywood and independent shoot-em-ups. If the filmmakers cheat and present us with cartoon gun battles, suspense becomes impossible to generate because we never accept that what is happening is real. Which is why the action in Bad Boys II was so dull – contrast the shoot-outs in that waste of celluloid with the ones in a quality production like Heat. Chalk and cheese.

The ending is total shit; that goes without saying. Afterwards, take comfort in the news that financially, Cradle of Life has not yet broken even. See the movie for Angelina Jolie in top form, together with an ambitious story and passable stunt work. Buried under the obvious contempt that Jan de Bont has for audiences these days is an okay action film. Jolie recognised this and does her best to bring it to life, lobotomy scar and all. 

website