Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider, starring Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft, is based from a computer game of the same name. The name of the game describes what it is all about: tombs. It is a revolutionary game that took the heroics off the males and gave them into a female. The great hero, Lara Croft, is a great acrobat with a wide array of skills in guns, and has the instinct and intelligence that is dependent of the player. The story, based on most of what I've encountered and even played, is all about finding a certain artifact that "possesses great power that it will spell destruction if held by evil hands, yada-yada." That same story goes to the "un" revolutionary movie.
Angeline Jolie's portrayal of Lara isn't bad. She's got the looks, and a heck of a lot of "bouncing effects". But something's wrong with what the story makes of Lara Croft: she's too invincible, oozing with lots of arrogance. That contributed a lot to making the element of suspense go down the drain. Watching it, never have I thought that "what if she loses," or "go Lara, go!" All I thought was "I wonder how long will it take for Lara to beat this thing?" The only suspense I've got was the very first part, wherein she fought with a robot programmed by her "techie" to kill her (oops, spoiler!). The other action scenes? They're not boring, but they become annoying as you see that Lara always has the upper-hand.
The story, although not something worthy on the hall of fame, isn't really bad. Although the story is simple, there are a lot of complicated elements that makes you never want to miss a single word. Thanks to the great effects and visuals, they aid you in understanding the story. The only thing I missed though was I never got the feeling that the "bad guys" are bad. Yeah, they sent armed men dressed like the SWAT team to do some damage in Lara's home, but so what? The only bad feeling I had was seeing the house that exactly looks like the one in the game get messed up big time.
The world is huge with lots of people. How come the story revolved with only Lara and her pals, and the bad guys? They are the only people who interact with each other. The effect: it doesn't seem that the bad guys are bad. Getting the artifact appeared to be just a sport between the two groups. So, thrills never came up. With the poor portrayal of the enemies, I never cared if the they would get their hands on the artifact first.
And the time the artifact got activated? I never saw its potential. All the movie showed is that "before, they destroyed it into pieces so that it can never destroy the world." Bad thing they never showed what if the artifact is to destroy the world. All I saw was a teenee-weenie sequence with Lara and her father that it could alter time. Jeez, what a superbly destructive thing that is!
I guess my final words would be that it could've have been better. They got a great plot that is placed in a rushed movie. If only the movie made us see what is between the lines other than to imagine what is between them, it could have become a movie that would set a record: the first great movie based from a computer game.