TOMB RAIDER

Like many well-intentioned video game to movie translations, LARA CROFT: TOMB RAIDER fails to offer a movie among the obvious video game trappings. Loosely constructed like the popular interactive game where Lara Croft engages in INDIANA JONES-like adventures while grappling with gravity defying bosoms, the film itself is sadly more of the same.

Yet when you think of bringing such an interesting character to the big screen, you would expect a little more characterization, plot and action, yet TOMB RAIDER is no Indiana Jones, and in fact it's more akin to the dreadful, incoherent AVENGERS from a few years back than anything else.

It's obvious the whole creation of Lara Croft's game persona was no doubt inspired by the Indiana Jones films in the first place, yet director Simon West has tried hard to avoid comparisons. In fact this is where the film falls apart because it should have been more like them. As in the Indiana Jones and James Bond films, the pre-title sequence should be the end of one adventure and beginning of another. TOMB RAIDER eschews that philosophy and starts the film off after the opening titles where Croft battles a persistent metallic robot that just won't die. Is this the end of an adventure? No, it's actually a creation of Croft's sidekick and quasi-Q, Bryce (Noah Taylor), and the robot is designed to test her fighting skills.

This reveal is such a let down that it seems like an eternity until we get to the film's best action sequence, when the bad guys decide to attack Croft's plush estate.

The story involves Croft discovering an ancient artifact left by her deceased father (Jolie's real-life dad Jon Voight). She soon learns that everyone wants this trinket, since it holds the key to the universe (or some kind of mumbo-jumbo like that). Soon, the adversary of her father, Mandred Powell (Iain Glen), is discovered to be behind this bid for the amulet, and Croft is then off on a journey to Iceland and Cambodia to stop his nefarious plans.

The production design of the film by Kirk M. Petruccelli is quite impressive considering most of the sets themselves were created practically instead of in the CGI realm. Still, it doesn't take away from the film's very stiff direction, which should have been fluid with all the beautifully elaborate sets. Scenes also play out like they're never truly finished, and Croft says so few words during the first half of the film it feels like a silent movie. Then there's the action, which should have been phenomenal, but simply feels plodding and predictable. The assault on her mansion does have a few interesting moments, but it's so forced and pre-planned, there's no excitement to it once it's over. It's surprising that director Simon West who handled the superb action for CON AIR with such finesse doesn't pull off a similar trick here.

Some of the burden of the film surprisingly enough rests on the shoulders of Jolie. While she definitely embodies the spirit of Croft, she doesn't give the character any soul. It's all poses and posturing and not much else. We're supposed to care that she never got to say goodbye to her father and that there are unresolved issues, but we're never made to feel it. Written by Patrick Massett and John Zinman, Croft as a character is reduced to snappy one-liners and coy looks rather than actually giving Croft fans what they want background into who she really is. We get to see her pretty digs and her troubled relationship with her father, but it all comes off as rather contrived instead of organic to the story. Even when the film really cranks up the Indiana Jones comparison midway through during a raid in a Cambodia tomb, it all seems rather laughable...and dare I say boring?

Though Jolie does her best to make sure millions of Croft fans will be drooling at the cineplex with her curvy posing, LARA CROFT: TOMB RAIDER sadly doesn't live up to the hype. It has the video game to movie curse like STREET FIGHTER, SUPER MARIO BROS. and other films of its ilk before it, where if you're looking for a good movie, you'll probably get more out of just playing the game.