IMAGE INTRODUCES...CRYPTOPIA

By: Arnold T. Blumberg
Review Date: Tuesday, April 16, 2002

Lara Croft might just have some competition. True, she's more into the tomb-raiding sort of work while Dr. Shannon Elizabeth Palmer is a cryptozoologist - someone who studies hidden species like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster, folks - but these two buxom babes with a penchant for archaeologically-based adventuring share a certain devil-may-care style. Palmer, however, has the luxury of cursing when she's in the mood, something the family-friendly Croft can't do. So much for comparisons.

Palmer is discovered in pretty sad shape at the start of this story, but we quickly jump back six months to a Himalayan trip that brought Palmer face to face with the Abominable Snowmen themselves. In a life and death struggle, Palmer proves she's more than just a pretty face or a shy retiring academic. After the carnage is over, we cut to Palmer's office at UCLA in a transition more than a little reminiscent of the first and third Indiana Jones films. But hey, if Croft can steal from Dr. Jones, why can't Palmer?

Palmer's office resembles Jones' tiny quarters as well, but when she finds out her grant has been revoked, she's ready to bounce off her cramped walls. Fortunately, fate - and the writers - provide salvation in the form of a clichéd slimy Frenchman with an offer Palmer can't refuse. He wants Palmer to help him uncover the existence of a distant island populated by all sorts of bizarre species, a veritable Lost World...um, on second thought, we won't call it that, the lawyers are getting fidgety. Palmer has a stroke when she sees all the zeroes on the Frenchman's check, rounds up her entomologist friend Chryssie, herpetologist David Sherman, and ornithologist Faith Esposito, and soon the whole too-hip-for-their-own-good team is off in their benefactor's hovercraft. You can almost see the red line tracing their journey across the map. Oh, and I almost forgot, what Indiana Jones-type adventure would be complete without the surrogate Harrison Ford figure, in this case the Han Solo-esque rogue pilot named Sam Stone? And guess who has a history with our very own Dr. Palmer? Of course, which means the requisite sexual tension is there as well. Textbook.


But for all the obvious elements and characters that borrow liberally from Jones, Croft, King Kong, Arthur Conan Doyle, and plenty more besides, this is still a pretty pleasant start to an admittedly familiar saga. If you're looking for something truly original, look elsewhere. But if you'd like to read a fun tale of danger and discovery straight out of the old serials, leavened with some good ol' 21st century swearing, then check out CRYPTOPIA.