Lady Lara Croft might sound like a prim and proper member of the English upper class but we soon see that she is far from that as she enters what appears to be an ancient tomb and ends up battling a robot
while wearing short shorts and a tee shirt that shows of her ample assets! This is just a training sequence to give us an idea what she can do. It turns out that a once in five thousand year planetary alignment is about to happen and a sinister organisation is desperate to get their hands on 'the key' which will enable then to get their hands on the two pieces of an ancient artefact that will allow them to control time itself. It turns out that Lara's late father found the key some time earlier and placed it in her country house. She finds it when it starts ticking and starts trying to find out what it is. This leads her to Manfred Powell who wants the key for himself and soon steals it with the help of a small army of mercenaries. If Lara is to stop him getting his hands on the device she will have to follow him to a temple in Cambodia, Venice then finally to a remote corner of Siberia.
If you are looking for something serious you will be a bit disappointed but if you want some good silly fun with plenty of action you could do a lot worse. The story is simple enough with no real surprises but it is told fairly well. Often in this sort of film there is a bit too much forced humour but thankfully this is played fairly straight. There is lots of action and this is rather good; given the films age the CGI still looks pretty decent. Angelina Jolie does an impressive job as our eponymous heroine; it isn't surprising that she went on to play more action leads. The rest of the cast is pretty solid too; notably Daniel Craig and Iain Glen. Having never played the video games I can't say how the character or story compares possibly an advantage as I had no idea what Lara Croft 'should' be like. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to anybody wanting an hour and a half of silly action with little content that could be considered offensive.
If you are looking for something serious you will be a bit disappointed but if you want some good silly fun with plenty of action you could do a lot worse. The story is simple enough with no real surprises but it is told fairly well. Often in this sort of film there is a bit too much forced humour but thankfully this is played fairly straight. There is lots of action and this is rather good; given the films age the CGI still looks pretty decent. Angelina Jolie does an impressive job as our eponymous heroine; it isn't surprising that she went on to play more action leads. The rest of the cast is pretty solid too; notably Daniel Craig and Iain Glen. Having never played the video games I can't say how the character or story compares possibly an advantage as I had no idea what Lara Croft 'should' be like. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to anybody wanting an hour and a half of silly action with little content that could be considered offensive.