 --- Part 2 of the Lara Croft Double Feature --- "Thumbs Up! Better than the first. It's fun!"-Roger Ebert, Ebert & Roeper Laura Croft is back in action and faces her most perilous mission. To recover what ancient civilization believed to be the essence of all evil, Pandora’s Box. She must travel the globe, from Greece to Hong Kong to Kenya and beyond to get to the box before it is found by a maniacal scientist whose plan it is to use it for mass annihilation. For this adventure Laura recruits her ex-partner, Terry Sheridan, a dangerous mercenary who has previously betrayed Laura and their country. She knows he's the best for the mission, but can she trust him again? Join her as she races through furious hand-to-hand battles, blazing shoot-outs and breathtaking sky-diving escapes to try to save the ancient artifact.....and mankind’s future. Storyline: Intrepid British archaeologist Lara Croft has made perhaps the most important archaeological discovery in history: an orb that leads to the mythical Pandora's Box. Unfortunately, the orb falls into the hands of Jonathan Reiss, an evil scientist who deals in killer viruses and hopes to sell the secrets of the box as the ultimate weapon. Recruited by British Intelligence to get the orb back from Reiss, Lara recruits Terry Sheridan, a British marine turned mercenary (and her former love interest) to help. The two embark on an adventure that spans continents in an attempt to regain the orb... Written by Gavin Nelson Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Michael Reuben, October 9, 2013 -- Despite generally negative reviews, the first Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) was such a box office success that a sequel was inevitable. The second film, released two years later, achieved slightly better critical reaction (though only just), but fans weren't so enthusiastic. The film limped to profitability in overseas markets, and by the time Paramount was game to consider a third outing, star Angelina Jolie had lost interest. At the time, Paramount blamed the film's weak reception on issues with the latest installment of Eidos' Lara Croft game series, "Angel of Darkness", which was so bug-ridden that gamers could barely play it. (A senior Eidos executive resigned over the debacle.) But that was a cover story. I wasn't a gamer, just a movie fan, and I could sense something amiss as I sat in the theater on a hot summer's afternoon in July 2003. Jolie was still giving her all, and director Jan de Bont brought his usual flair to the elaborate action sequences, but Cradle of Life left no impression and no desire for a return visit. Watching it again ten years later, I see the same problems, but at least Warner has produced a superior Blu-ray of this Paramount catalog title. As Jan de Bont notes in his commentary, exposition can be deadly for a popcorn thriller, but let's summarize. The Cradle of Life is where life began on Earth, and it also contains, well, anti-life, also called "Ramante", a plague discovered by an Egyptian pharoah in 2300 B.C. when he made the mistake of opening the box-like container housing Ramante, which decimated his army. The legend of Pandora's Box is what Lara calls the "Sunday School version" of this tale. An earthquake near the Greek Island of Santorini reveals the Luna Temple where Alexander the Great stored his treasures, including a glowing orb that, when properly decoded, reveals the location of the Cradle of Life and, with it, Pandora's Box. Lara wants it, because, well, she's Lara Croft, raider of tombs and collector of antiquities. Her chief competition is Nobel Prize-winning scientist Jonathan Reiss (Ciarán Hinds), a bio-terrorist who wants the anti-life contained in Pandora's Box, because it's the ultimate weapon. However, Reiss is one of those typical movie villains who subcontracts his dirty work to unscrupulous partners, even though he has his own loyal underlings, notably Sean (Til Schweiger). Reiss has hired a Chinese crime gang, the Shay-Ling, headed by Chen Lo (Simon Yo), to seize the orb from the Luna Temple and deliver it to Reiss at his secret headquarters in Hong Kong. Chen Lo gets the orb away from Lara, but then double-crosses Reiss to negotiate for a higher price. This gives Lara an opening, which she takes with the full backing of Britain's MI6, who are terrified of Reiss and his plans. But Lara needs help finding the Shay-Ling, and she insists that MI6 get her Terry Sheridan (Gerard Butler), a former mercenary, arms dealer and all-around scoundrel currently rotting in a Kazakhstan prison. Sheridan also happens to be a former lover of Lara's, which causes great concern to her loyal butler, Hillary (Christopher Barrie), and technical guru, Bryce (Noah Taylor). MI6 isn't exactly thrilled with the idea of putting a criminal of Sheridan's talents back into circulation, but those are Lara's terms. All of this busy plotting is designed to create as many opportunities for spectacular action set pieces as possible, and de Bont obviously had fun staging them, as Lara and Sheridan are captured by the Shay-Ling, escape, intercept their handoff of the orb to Reiss, invade Reiss's headquarters, escape again, split up, separately race Reiss to the Cradle of Life (where Lara is guided by Djimon Hounsou's Kosa) and find Pandora's Box. There's shooting, explosions, plunging from great heights on ropes and in flying suits, underwater diving, bizarre shark encounters and a nightmarish subterranean trek straight out of M.C. Escher. Like Indiana Jones, Lara Croft rarely discovers a priceless archaeological site without trashing it into rubble before she departs. Still, the whole enterprise feels empty and soulless, because de Bont and his stable of writers (at least five have been cited, although the Writers Guild ultimately allowed only three credits) forgot to include one thing: a human connection. Spielberg, Lucas and Harrison Ford always provided one for Indiana Jones. No matter how absurd or implausible his adventures became, he was always battling for someone he cared about: Marion Ravenwood, or a family member, or a group of kidnapped children who reminded him of Short Round. There was always an immediate emotional connection grounding the over-the-top excess of Indiana's "Saturday morning serial" adventures. Whatever its flaws, the first Tomb Raider film included a similar element with the notion of Lara's completing a task begun by her father decades ago and reconnecting with him through a kind of spiritual time travel. The Cradle of Life has no such emotional linkage. Lara explores the Luna Temple because it is there, and she goes after the orb because she wants it. She pursues the Shay-Ling and Reiss merely because they took the orb from her, and she would have done so with or without MI6's entreaties. She partners with a man she never trusts for an instant and with whom she has sexual chemistry but no emotional connection (think Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor in The Maltese Falcon). The fact that Lara saves humanity is just a convenient alignment between her interests and those of the rest of the world. None of this is the fault of Jolie, who gives as good a performance here as she did in the first film. The weakness lies entirely in the script. Action, fantasy and sci-fi films may be popcorn fare, but that doesn't mean they should get short shrift in their dramatic content. The greatest popular entertainers have always understood this, which is why their films have replay value and last for years. The Cradle of Life is harmless popcorn entertainment, but it's neither memorable nor remarkable and, for my money, it falls short of the first film. Ironically, the second film has received a superior treatment on Blu-ray, but it's only a matter of time before the first film is remastered. In the meantime, for fans of the franchise, the Blu-ray of Cradle of Life is a creditable presentation and is recommended on that basis. Those new to Jolie's Lara Croft films should rent. Cast Notes: Angelina Jolie (Lara Croft), Gerard Butler (Terry Sheridan), Ciarán Hinds (Jonathan Reiss), Chris Barrie (Hillary [as Christopher Barrie]), Noah Taylor (Bryce), Djimon Hounsou (Kosa), Til Schweiger (Sean), Simon Yam (Chen Lo), Terence Yin (Xien), Daniel Caltagirone (Nicholas Petraki), Fabiano Martell (Jimmy Petraki), Jonathan Coyne (Gus Petraki), Robert Cavanah (MI6 Agent Stevens), Ronan Vibert (MI6 Agent Calloway), Lenny Juma (Village Leader). IMDb Rating (11/28/15): 5.5/10 from 96,938 users
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
