Jithin K Mohan So ludicrous that it's quite entertaining. The plotholes can be only matched by the stupidity of the characters. The use of music feels too confused just like the direction of the rest of the movie but can't deny that watching Angelina Jolie in The Matrix wannabe action with some crazy music was fun even though not even remotely convincing.

Thomas Drufke Lara Croft: Tomb Raider is one of those movies that is very difficult to go back and re-watch. It's not just because the special effects are more than dated or that the story feels very generic, it's because the Hollywood we knew in 2001 is very different from the Hollywood we know now. This movie would be absolutely ripped to shreds if it came out now, and to a certain extent it was back then as well. I'm sorry, but you can't just get away with having a mind-blowingly pointless shower scene and that other thing they shamelessly did to enhance Lara. Yeah, that doesn't fly.It's also interesting just to look at this film as a product of its age because of how much it feels like it's trying to be something that it's not. Tomb Raider is supposed to be an adventure first and action second type of franchise. Or at least that's always the way I viewed it. But this film rips so many pages out from the playbook of The Matrix and other 90's classic action movies and tries to weave a halfway decent adventure story into the film as well. Having the Illuminati as the 'big bad' of the film is one thing, but silly CGI flooded sequences with zero weight behind them is a whole other problem the film faces.But I think the thing that this film does most poorly is flush out Lara Croft as her own character. If you look at her in the first scene and the last scene, there really isn't much growth or difference as to how she does about her life. In order for there to be a point to making the film, there needs to be some sort of growth or arc, or else what was really accomplished in the end?4.2/10

Fluke_Skywalker Plot; A thrill seeking, treasure hunting aristocrat finds herself up against the Illuminati in a race to rejoin two halves of a powerful ancient artifact... or something like that. To date (and excluding the soon to be released Tomb Raider reboot), the live action video game movie adaptation w/the highest Rotten Tomatoes score is 2010's Prince Of Persia w/%36. That's the bar. In short, Hollywood's attempts to bring your favorite video games to life have often been less than successful, w/only the Resident Evil franchise ever finding any sustained success w/a whopping six entries. Released in 2001 and w/a strong whiff of 90s b.o. clinging to its tight, sweat-soaked tank top, Tomb Raider was a modest hit and spawned a sequel, but w/a %20 RT score and a 5.8 rating on IMDb, it's not exactly considered a classic. That it's one of the more well regarded video game adaptations may say more about the genre than the movie itself. That said, it's always been a bit of a guilty pleasure for me (My two decade long crush on Ms. Jolie may play a small part in that). It has a couple of dizzyingly kinetic action scenes and a lean, tight pace that both help you to forget what absolute drivel the story is. Angelina Jolie's Lara Croft isn't a character of any perceptible depth w/her too cool for the room attitude keeping you at arm's length even during the film's laughable attempts at drama, but the actress gamely attacks the material (such as it is). Her Lara doesn't do anything half way, even savagely assaulting the act of taking a shower. I really can't imagine any of this working half as well w/any other actress. A few not-then-but-now familiar faces pop up in Daniel Craig (Bond. James Bond) and Iain Glen (Game of Thrones). The former fails to make much of an impression aside from his extremely dodgy and comically bad American accent, and the latter is your typical generic Euro-villain w/an ill defined plan to blah blah blah. My memory of the sequel is that it's pretty dreadful, and the trailers for the reboot look equally so. I guess for me that makes Lara Croft: Tomb Raider the franchise's gold standard. Wow.

Tweekums 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.