Review: Tomb Raider (2001) Is The Indiana Jones Of The Early 2000s
- Mar 13, 2018
- 2 min read
Every half decade has a select few tropes that all the big action movies take on. Shaky cam, long takes, Arnold Schwarzenegger, they can date a film with ease. And for the early 2000s, it was The Rule Of Cool.
Lara Croft (Angelina Jolie), treasure hunter, archaeologist and all around badass, discovers a clock hidden within her families home, a clock that has roots in an ancient prophecy involving lost kingdoms, aligning planets and the Illuminati. Pursued by the villainous Manfred Powell (Iain Glen) and ex-lover Alex West (Daniel Craig), Lara departs on a globe trotting adventure which holds the fate of Earth itself in the balance.
Why does Laura have an indoor bungee? Cause it'll be cool in a fight scene. What would be the best way for a treasure hunter to train? Gun fighting a killer robot, obviously, that would be coolest. Indiana Jones had a whip, that was cool. You know what's cooler? Two guns, at the same time. Why do the ancient statues come to life? I don't know, but it's cool. Is Tomb Raider a great movie? Only because it's so cool.
Tomb Raider isn't exactly high cinema. The story isn't particularly great, the writing is unexpectedly cheesy and acting shifts between Jolie's barely passable English accent and Craig's deplorable American one. But for a movie quite literally centred around having an attractive woman shoot her way across the globe in increasingly ridiculous scenarios, accept no substitute.
Tomb Raider is a film from a simpler time. It crams outlandish action, excessive characters and a globe trotting plot into an hour and half, and manages to keep it fun. If it sounds like your idea of a good time, it probably is.
Comments