Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2001
	Director: Simon West (Con Air, The General's Daughter, The Expendables 2)
	Actors: Angelina Jolie (Wanted, Beowulf), Jon Voight (Anaconda, National Treasure 1-2), Iain Glen (Game of Thrones TV-series)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Fantasy, Adventure
	Conditions of visioning: 20.01.2018, VOD, 32" TV screen.
Synopsis: Wealthy British adventurer Lara Croft (Jolie) is sent on a quest for a mysterious triangle with incredible power by clues left by her father (Voight) long gone and that she misses deeply.
Review: This is the first cinema adaptation of the hit video game Tomb Raider that was released in 1996, followed by a sequel every year that hadn't yet ceased to be popular in 2001. So the timing of the movie release was quite perfect. No less perfect is the choice of Angelia Jolie to embody (and what a body) the main character, adventurer in tight shorts whose look is easily recognizable thanks to her two big... guns. The physique of the actress (with some parts enhanced if I remember well what I read in the press at that time) matches quite perfectly what the gamers of the time were fantasizing upon, and which caused the game to receive criticism for being sexist. Well, video games are still mostly played by males and if you look at games from 1996 as well as the most recent Japanese productions, you will see that studios know what those guys like: big guns! In a similar register the character was even ripped off in 2003 for a sleazy erotic production entitled Womb Raider that I have had the bad taste to watch. If this "sexist" approach displeases you, be reassured that the franchise is slowly following the evolution of its gamers as you can see from the look of the heroin in the 2013 reboot of the game franchise, which also inspired a more realistic look for the upcoming cinema adaptation (see posters below) in which the main character is played by the skinny Alicia Vikander (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.). Now that I have established that Lara is perfect, what remains? If it were not adapted from the video game (which Anniversary edition I have recently started to play on PSP), the story would really seem far-fetched, but put back into context it just matches well what the gamers know: some intrigue, a rival archaeologist and bad guys after the same thing (the influence of Indiana Jones is of course present), mysterious artifacts found in forgotten temples after solving some puzzles. Lara does solves a few and does some acrobatics but not as much as in the game, because this is not a game after all. It may look a bit aged now but I like this Tomb Raider that did a very good job at the time, enough to generate a sequel Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life. Knowing the quality and consequent fate of the remakes and reboots produced in the recent years, I can easily predict that the 2018 version will be insipid and quickly forgotten after making a quick buck from a young audience with a short attention span.
Rating: 6 /10 The new look of Lara Croft from the 2013 video game. Poster of the 2018 movie.