I am not nutty at all about video games but I admit that "Lara Croft Tomb Raider" is a benchmark in the history of video game. Such a triumph with an adventuress who made a household name around the globe could only have repercussions in the cinema with the decision to transfer to the silver screen Croft's adventures. Thus, the first installment opened in the summer 2001. Its amount? A shallow, empty adventure movie because it remained stuck on the aesthetics of the video game and the clichés of the adventure film. But rather excellent figures must have rejoiced the producers to prompt them to do it again.
Francis Veber, a French filmmaker who gave a boost to French comedy by giving it the recipe of the mismatched pair (see the delicious "la Chèvre", 1981 and "le Dîner De Cons", 1998) once expressed his judgment about sequels in general: "what is a sequel? Generally a shoddy remake of the first film". How this relevant opinion is applicable to "Lara Croft Tomb Raider: the Cradle of Life"! It's chiefly a photocopy of its elder brother, so why bother? Take and pen a faded, join-the-dots story which takes Croft in the four corners of the world searching for a mysterious object supposed to guide her to the Pandhora box which shelters deadly powers. Fill this story with characters or rather puppets because they have so little depth including the one-time lover who may have or not a crush on his fiancée again, the caricatured boss of the baddies. Then, bestow this story with two-bit obligatory elements (the Chinese mafia, notably the boss Reiss has a keen interest in finding the Pandhora box and so tracks Croft down), lackluster action sequences and you get a cheesy product cluttered with so-so special effects probably to palliate the glaring weaknesses of the scenario. A skimpy one which lets the average viewer guess that the scenarists may have experienced a block writing their story or maybe its loose potential reveals a strong intention from the producers to count on a second commercial success while neglecting rigor in storytelling. Then, what is annoying is this nagging would-be deadpan humor which helps to mar the film and even the presence of a specialist in action film, Jan De Bont doesn't redeem at all this abysmal product from absolute wreckage.
From the Pandhora box, everything baneful that can damage a film like "Lara Croft Tomb Raider: the Cradle of Life" got out and destroyed it. At the bottom, remained what could have cured this film: originality. The fans of the video games: why not rushing on them again instead of wasting your time with this poor man (woman)'s Indiana Jones?
Francis Veber, a French filmmaker who gave a boost to French comedy by giving it the recipe of the mismatched pair (see the delicious "la Chèvre", 1981 and "le Dîner De Cons", 1998) once expressed his judgment about sequels in general: "what is a sequel? Generally a shoddy remake of the first film". How this relevant opinion is applicable to "Lara Croft Tomb Raider: the Cradle of Life"! It's chiefly a photocopy of its elder brother, so why bother? Take and pen a faded, join-the-dots story which takes Croft in the four corners of the world searching for a mysterious object supposed to guide her to the Pandhora box which shelters deadly powers. Fill this story with characters or rather puppets because they have so little depth including the one-time lover who may have or not a crush on his fiancée again, the caricatured boss of the baddies. Then, bestow this story with two-bit obligatory elements (the Chinese mafia, notably the boss Reiss has a keen interest in finding the Pandhora box and so tracks Croft down), lackluster action sequences and you get a cheesy product cluttered with so-so special effects probably to palliate the glaring weaknesses of the scenario. A skimpy one which lets the average viewer guess that the scenarists may have experienced a block writing their story or maybe its loose potential reveals a strong intention from the producers to count on a second commercial success while neglecting rigor in storytelling. Then, what is annoying is this nagging would-be deadpan humor which helps to mar the film and even the presence of a specialist in action film, Jan De Bont doesn't redeem at all this abysmal product from absolute wreckage.
From the Pandhora box, everything baneful that can damage a film like "Lara Croft Tomb Raider: the Cradle of Life" got out and destroyed it. At the bottom, remained what could have cured this film: originality. The fans of the video games: why not rushing on them again instead of wasting your time with this poor man (woman)'s Indiana Jones?