It is a rare occasion when a sequel outdoes the original. But Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life achieves successes in a whole new way.
Lara Croft (Angelina Jolie) is back as the fearless archaeological adventuress who examines remnants of ancient civilizations. But this time, she has a little more determination, passion, and purpose. Lara finds herself going head-to-head with Chen Lo, the leader of a Chinese crime coalition. He steals Lara's glowing orb, which holds the secrets to the location of the mysterious and mythical Pandora's Box. This location, according to Greek mythology, is also the precise location of the beginning of life on the earth.
Jumping from country to country with her cool gadgets, guns, knifes, helicopters and even a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, Lara makes everything look so easy. Since she was born into the comforts of the British aristocracy, she can do anything she wants, anywhere she wants. Given the royal approval from Her Majesty, Lara is up to the challenge to find the orb and the location of the Pandora's Box before the evil coalition does. Her plan is to stop them from worldwide domination and corruption of the world's population that might occur if Pandora's Box is opened. But Lara needs the help of some of her friends to accomplish this goal, including the nerdy computer-master Bryce (Noah Taylor), back from Tomb Raider and Sean (Til Schweiger), her martial arts trainer.
Lara also has friends all over the world, in high and low places. But she still needs the help of an insider into the Chinese coalitions, Terry Sheridan (Gerald Butler, Reign of Fire). A few sparks fly between the two, as the film implies that they had a romantic past. Things begin to heat up when they both leap off a giant skyscraper in Korea and are literally flying side by side in squirrel-like parachutes. This movie achieves the thrilling Indiana Jones-like adventure that makes the movie worthwhile; it is truly what grandiose adventure is about. From the film's opening minutes revealing Lara's search for hidden underwater treasure, to an unusual motorcycle race between Lara and Terry, to a flying sequence leading up to the film's surprising climax, fans will not be disappointed.
I like the fact that this film reveals Lara Croft's vulnerability as a human being, much more than her unbreakable character performance in the first film. She is also proves that she is more than a she-thing that looks great in a silver cat suit, and kicks butt better than Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
I must admit that I had a secret fear, going into this film, that the main cluster of attendees would be males age eighteen and up drooling over Angelina Jolie's shapely appearance. I was mostly right, but there were a lot more females in the crowd than I had anticipated.
After the box office success of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider in June 2001, director Simon West (Con Air) cashed in along with all the producers, and the films' large fan base demanded another big adventure. But this time around, a new director, Jan de Bont, would direct the sequel with many sci-fi/action films under his belt including Speed, Speed 2: Cruise Control, The Haunting, Twister, and more recently, Minority Report and Equilibrium. This change in directors could have made all the difference in making Cradle of Life much more fun and adventurous than the original. All I seem to remember about the first film, is how it made you wish you'd had stayed home and picked up your PlayStation, since most of the sequence fighting in the movie is exactly what is in the video game.
It is noteworthy to say that I did observe the simultaneous snickering of some boys in the row in front of me at some of the cheesy scenes. Then again, most movies, no matter how good the action scenes are, still have these. And another thing that is noteworthy is the fact that Cradle of Life actually had some tongue-in-cheek humor in it that the original seemed to lack.
The ending also does give you the impression that there will be a third Tomb Raider. And as long as Angelina Jolie's acting ability does not dominish in playing the exhausting role of the adventurous archaeologist Lara Croft, we can expect truly marvelous high-riding journeys in upcoming episodes. Until then, Cheerio!
Stephanie Anderson is a reporter for the Web Devil. Reach her at stephanie.j.anderson@asu.edu.
