'Tomb Raider' not satisfying but not a total disaster either

By Joko E.H. Anwar

Tomb Raider **1/2 out of four stars; Action/Adventure, 100 minutes; Starring Angelina Jolie, Noah Taylor, Iain Glen, Daniel Craig, Christopher Barrie, and Jon Voight; Directed by Simon West; A United International Pictures/Paramount Pictures/Mutual Film Company Production

JAKARTA (JP): Every time those guys in Hollywood make a movie based on a popular video game, people start to think, "Whom do they think they are making the movie for?"

Let's face it, video game fans are usually disappointed by the outcomes since the fate of the characters is no longer in their hands. And those who are not familiar with the source material find it less impressive to see a movie with a plot taken from a game. Remember Mortal Kombat and Super Mario Bros?

All right, to some (mostly big studio execs) Tomb Raider sounds like a perfect video game to turn into a movie. The game has sold millions, and would probably have sold more if it had not been pirated so massively here.

And who's never heard of Lara Croft anyway? The sexiest female archeologist/photo journalist in the world. A woman with a perfect combination of body and mind who can jump higher than Jackie Chan does and at the same time fire guns from both hands.

Find a perfect actress to play the character, give her months of training in the boxing ring to give her even more shape and "Walla!", you have a big hit is on your hands.

"It won't be just a movie: it'll be a juggernaut," says John Goldwyn, president of Paramount Motion Pictures as quoted by Premiere.

Well, that's what they think.

The fact is, Tomb Raider does not yet prove that film based on a video game can be a delightful treat. It lacks real thrills and excitement.

Comic books have more luck. Some of them, such as The Crow and The Mask, have made the transition into celluloid well.

The makers of Tomb Raider seem to have spent their time (and money) in computer-generated effects which look good in the theater. But they forget that everybody knows that great images are not the only thing good movies are made of.

It's amazing how the film's plot can be so dull given that the story is credited to three different people while the screenplay is credited to two. Director Simon West himself is also credited with adapting the story.

According to the July edition of Premiere, it actually took eleven screenwriters to come up with the script that received the green light from the studio execs.

The result is a film about an adrenaline junkie without the adrenalin.

The story involves a secret, ancient group called the Illuminati who vow to find the two mystical halves of The Triangle of Light, the origins of which will remain unclear to many in the audience.

If the halves are united, the holder will have the power to control time, even change the past if they want to.

It took a long list of writers to come up with this story. Probably because some of them cannot get their minds off the truly exciting The Fifth Element.

Well anyway, the halves can only be reunited once every 5,000 years when a planetary alignment occurs.

Meanwhile, Lady Lara Croft is residing peacefully in her mansion in Britain, seemingly taking a break in between adventures.

She's got a butler (Chris Barrie) who provides her with good cooking and keeps her house clean, and a computer nerd, Bryce (Noah Taylor), who provides her with dangerous robots as her sparring partners.

Lara discovers a clock containing the key to finding the halves after being told by her late father, Lord Croft (Jolie's real life father Jon Voight), all about it in a dream. Her father also tells her to stop the Illuminati from finding the halves first.

Oh by the way, the Illuminati is an evil group because ... wait, I didn't quite get that one, really.

Meanwhile, the group have already hired a man named Manfred Powell (Iain Glen) to find the stones. In his task, Powell is helped by adventurer Alex West (Daniel Craig), with whom Lara later develops a flirtatious relationship which does not really work.

Please don't expect any clever twists in the plot from this movie.

When we move Lara Croft through dark tunnels and ruins while playing the video game, we can feel the presence of vicious creatures lurking in the dark.

The film, however, has rapid editing which fails to give us this feeling, the chilling atmosphere we get from the video game.

Plus, the film does not have the luxury of being able to present images of Lara slaying vicious beasts, the part which satisfies most of the video game's fans.

But, if the film dared to do so, animal groups would certainly have tried to stop the production.

As substitutes, the film gives us computer-generated stone men, some of whom have wings, chasing off the film's characters.

It is hard not to compare the film with The Mummy Returns. The two films have many similarities including the ancient background stories, European settings and CGI-generated mean creatures.

But the latter certainly provides more exciting scenes and some chuckles that really work.

Tomb Raider's supposedly exotic locales in Angkor Wat in Cambodia and Iceland are wasted and they should have just built the sets in a studio.

Granted, Angelina Jolie is perfect as Lara Croft. In fact, she is the only reason that the film was not completely trashed by film critics. Besides, I cannot even begin to think of another actress to play Lara Croft in her signature tight tops, hot pants and shorts.

The action sequences involving her fighting off bad guys after training on rubberized ropes dubbed "bungee bullets" are very impressive. She seems to be physically fit to be able to do all the action sequences, no doubt due to months of physical training and her willingness to sustain injuries during filming.

Too bad the film tries to be realistic by not having Lara bouncing off the walls.

In short, while the film never approaches the level of satisfying entertainment, it is not a complete disaster either.