Customer Reviews

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider- The Cradle of Life (Widescreen Special Collector's Edition)

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(21)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

Purchased to go with the other Angina Jolie movie we currently own. Nice to have them both in our collection of movies.

Angelina Jolie reprises her role as the adventuring hero Lara Croft in Tomb Raider, The Cradle of Life. While the first movie was long on action and short on plot, they effectively do a 180 degree reversal in this sequel.

The plot involves the race between Lara and a dealer of WMDs (how convenient) to find the Cradle of Life where hidden is the literal Pandora's Box. Opening the box will unleash a weapon far more powerful than anything man can create. The dealer wants it to sell to the highest bidder and Lara wants it to keep it hidden.

Unfortunately much of the action of the first is lost, primarily due to the sub plot involving Lara and an old flame, a mercenary she rescues from prison to help her on the quest. Not sure why they insist on giving Lara a love interest in every movie as it only serves to slow things down and kill the male fantasy.

More importantly, in both movies she's now found herself rescued by her male partner. Isn't SHE supposed to be the hero here? I think it really cheapens the character.

Anyway, the fact is Cradle of Life is just plain boring. I found myself nodding off on a few occasions. The Tomb Raider movies have been able to capture none of the fun and adventuring spirit of the video games, let alone Indiana Jones movies that they were modeled after.

You have exotic locales and secret tombs and such, but it all comes off very flat. I think for the franchise to survive they really need a new director.

While most seem to be either a real big fan of the Lara Croft Tomb Raider movies or someone who despises them, I'll take up the role of a big fan. Just as in the first movie, Angelina Jolie's rendition of Lara Croft is absolutely wonderful. This second film, in what is undoubtedly going to be many, is another great action flick that is enjoyable entertainment from the beginning to the end.

While I only have a vague, passing familiarity with the video games, I can say, without a doubt, that this and the first movie make an enormously enjoyable leap from the pc screen to the silver screen.

Angelina Jolie's performance as Lara Croft, to include her impeccable British accent, is nothing less than stunning. I find it absolutely wonderful to see such a beautiful and agile actress take on the "James Bond" type role and handle it with such seeming ease. While these films won't win her any Oscars, they will indelibly mark her among the tops in action film stars. Gerard Butler's performance as Terry Sheridan makes another great performance by him after his leading role in "Attila."

Director, Jan de Bont deserves a great amount of praise for his direction of this box office smash, something of which he's quite familiar with having other directing credits to include "Speed" and "Twister." The score for this film greatly enhances the entire theatrical experience of the film.

The Premise:

Tomb Raider, Lara Croft finds herself on another mission to the save the world as she discovers an orb, which is the map to the Pandora's Box. Unfortunately for her, another tomb raider shows up when she discovers it and steals it from her, nearly killing her in the process. This other tomb raider happens to be working for Dr. Jonathan Reiss (Ciaran Hinds) who happens to be the worlds leading manufacturer of biological weapons.

Lara is soon visited by the British secret service, MI-6 and she finds herself on a mission to save the world, sanctioned by the Queen herself. All she needs now is a little help from an old "friend" in Terry Sheridan (Gerard Butler), who happens to be a former SAS Major, turned mercenary and who is now stuck in a Russian prison. The British government agrees to secure his freedom to help her.

What follows from there is nothing less than another outstanding Lara Croft Tomb Raider action film that is highly enjoyable and I most certainly look forward to future endeavors in this film series. {ssintrepid}

Special Features:

- Commentary by director Jan de Bont
- Deleted/Alternate scenes
- Featurettes:
*Training
*Vehicles and Weapons
*Stunts
*Visual Effects
*Scoring
- Gerard Butler's Screen Test
-Music Videos:
*Korn "Did My Time"
*The Davey Brothers "Heart Go Faster"
-Original Theatrical Web Site Archive

"Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life" marks the return of Angelina Jolie to the big screen as video game icon Lara Croft the Tomb Raider for more globetrotting treasure hunting [is a classic] adventure.

THE STORY:

After the mysterious globe she pursued gets stolen out from under her grasp, Lara Croft embarks on a mission to avenge her loss and protect the all powerful Pandora's Box that the globe leads to from falling into the wrong hands.

THE COOL THINGS:

If you've followed the video games or the first film you'll be pleased with this sequel. All the cool special FX and action sequences you enjoyed in the first movie and in the video game series returns here for Cradle of Life. The adrenaline is pumped further as Lara Croft gains a partner in the form of a jacked up Aussie ex-con, Terry Sheridan, whom she enlists to help her track down the Chinese syndicate who stole her globe. Like in the first film we get a whirlwind tour of the world as Lara traces down Pandora's Box and The Cradle of Life from China to Africa and everywhere in between. The thing I think that separates this movie from the first one is that the story in "Cradle of Life" was stronger and better developed than the first one.

BEST SCENES:

1. The Underwater Temple

2. Fighting the Chinese Syndicate

3. The "Sky-Flying" Scene

4. The Monsters in Africa

5. Battle for Pandora's Box in the Cradle of Life

THE DVD EXTRAS:

DVD extra fiends will be pleased with this set as, like most new releases, this set comes PACKED with goodies. Here's what you get:

1. Feature Length Commentary by Director Jan De Bont.

2. 6 Deleted Scenes and 1 Alternate Ending with optional Director Commentary track. It was a mixed bag of scenes, some cool, some disposable. The Alternate Ending was cool.

3. Featurettes: 5 featurettes

a. "Training" - 9 minute featurette on Angelina Jolie's training for this film including her weight training regimen, Tae Kwan Do lessons, Bo and Eskrima lessons, Jet Ski lessons, Equestrian and shooting lessons

b. "Vehicles and Weapons" - 4  minute featurette on the various cool weapons and vehicles used in the film including the Jeep, Lara's hand guns, bayonet, rifle, underwater gun, Armored Vehicle, Jet Ski, and Wrist-Mounted Gun

c. "Stunts" - 11 minute featurette on some of the bigger stunts in the film, how they were filmed and their challenges in filming including: the "Upside-Down Rappel" and the "Sky-Flying" scenes.

d. "Visual Effects" - 11  minute featurette on how they filmed some of the harder scenes including: the "underwarer" scene which was filmed on stage with "underwater" FX, the "Stealth Plane" crash scene which was almost all CGI, "The Shadow Guardians of the Petrified Forest" scene.

e. "Scoring" - 4  minute featurette on the musical score used in the film and the process used in deciding what type of music to use for certain scenes.

4. "Gerard Butier's Screen Test" - Gerard Butier's screen test for his role as Aussie Ex-Con Terry Sheridan. He reads lines from his intro scene at the prison. 4 minutes.

5. "Music Videos" - "Did My Time" by Korn, 4 minutes and "Heart Go Faster" - by The Davey Brothers, 3  minutes

6. Previews: Trailers for "Paycheck," "The Indiana Jones Trilogy Collection DVD set"

THE VERDICT:

Overall, if you're a fan of the Tomb Raider franchise you'll dig this latest entry into the franchise. Action and FX fiends will also love the multitude of cool sequences in this film. The DVD extras round out a great package making this a worthy addition to your DVD collection if you are so inclined.

Highly Recommended

FINAL GRADES

The Film: 4 stars
The Extras: 5 stars
Overall: 4.5 stars

Well, whaddya know? A sequel that outstrips the original in absolutely every area! They do exist, after all.

Mind you, since the original movie was such a terrible shambles, that's not so difficult to imagine.

Anyway, to synopsise the plot, Jonathan Reiss (Ciaran Hinds) is a chemical weapons developer in search of pandora's Box, which he believes to contain the ultimate plague. Enter Lara Croft (Angelina Jolie), treasure-hunter extraordinaire, to stop Reiss and save the world from destruction. Aided in her quest by one-time lover Terry Sheridan (Gerry Butler), her travels take her across the globe and back, from Greece to England, China to Africa, and there's a whole host of enemies to be defeated and puzzles to be solved in the interim.

The first thing one notices about 'Tomb raider' is Jolie's nigh-on flawless accent, and, for fans of the videogame, she's the perfect embodiment of Lara Croft. She does a credible job as a sort of modern female Indiana jones, and her supporting cast are passable, with the exception of Butler as Terry Sheridan, a charismatic actor with oceans of screen presence. Together this pairing works well.

The direction (by the normally excellent Jan De Bont) is pretty standard, with some bizarre slow-mo sequences cheapening the effect of the gorgeous locations. The titular 'Cradle of Life' looks somewhat rushed and in places the special effects look amateurish. But for the most part the action scenes are shot well, and there are dozens of nods to the videogames.

An average action flick, and one which, despite its flaws, is very entertaining, 'Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life' is a decent enough flick, far better than the original, which does a decent enough job of keeping you entertained. Just don't expect Indiana Jones and you'll most likely enjoy it.

One to rent.

I viewed the first tomb raider movie to be just another piece of video-game-gone-hollywood crap. So I never bothered seeing it. I wouldn't have bothered seeing the second one either, if it wasnt that I was bored and nothing else good was on PPV. While my prejudices to Lara's incarnation on-screen weren't completely wrong, I did end up finding Cradle of Life to be a very enjoyable, all-be-it commercialized, movie.

Cradle of life has the sexy Angelina Jolie returning as the hottest broad to ever grace a video game console - Lara Croft. Lara on the big screen is even more amazing than her character in the games, as she comes off as some sort of genetic splicing of a Master Ninja, Indiana Jones, and a Navy Seal. While not quite believable and a little over-done, it works well in context of the movie.

Lara reunites with an old ex, to go after the real life Pandora's Box, which is supposed to contain not only the secrets of the universe, but some really bad juju to say the least. While the plot attempts to explain the box and it's contents as a sort of plague (thus a bioweapons dealer is also looking for it) it also encorperates supernatural/meta physical sorts of things such as the shadow creatures gaurding it. This confused me a bit, but didnt detract too much as I wasnt expecting an ingenious plot here to begin with.

The acting is generally good, although I may have just been distracted by Jolies hypnotic eyes which always seem to have that "I want to rip your clothes off" look on them. No doubt Lara is pleasing to look at, but her portrayal in the movie gives an likable quality, something like a female james bond (she also has lots of gadgets so...)

The action in Cradle of Life is pretty intense and there's no shortage of over the top fight scenes and abundant special effects as is oh so typical of modern mainstream action films. While no one part of this movie is all that good, none are outright terrible either. The style of the film is something like what you might expect if the Iniana Jones series and Mission Impossible 2 had children together. The whole package adds up to be a decent movie, that while it will hopefully never win an oscar, it was a pretty good time to watch... once.

When I saw the first Tomb Raider film, I remember feeling that, while Angelina Jolie had never looked better, and the action was well staged, it was just average in the end. Given that analysis, I decided to rent the second film, rather than purchase it...

Adventurer Lara Croft returns, this time to stop maniacal Nobel Prize Winner Jonathan Reiss (Ciarán Hinds), from getting hold of Pandora's Box. The famed mythological object gives its possessor the power to unleash a deadly plaugue. Reiss believes that this is the only way to weed out the worst of the world's population. With fellow thrill seeker Gerard Butler (Terry Sheridan) not far from her side, Croft sets off to some exotic locales, like Hong Kong, Kenya, Tanzania, Greece and the Great Wall of China to find the box and save the world.

This time, directing chores are handled by famed Speed and Twister helmer, Jan De Bont. Unfortunately, the sequel, like its forebearer, ends up as another average adventure film. The strength of the movie is of course Jolie, who knows how to look good while kicking serious butt, that's it though. The film does have cool action and all--but it doesn't amount to much as far as the story's concerned. The James Bond and Indiana Jones Trilogy do this kind of stuff much better.

The DVD has a pretty good commentary by De Bont, despite my problems with the movie itself. There's are also 6 deleted scenes and an alternate ending, all with commentary by the director. As usual most of this stuff was wisely excised and wouldn't have improved things. There are five behind the scenes featurettes on the film's training, weapons and vehicles, visual effects, stunts and scoring. Most of this is your standard Electronic Press Kit style hockum. You also get to see actor Gerard Butler's screen test, music videos by Korn and The Davey Brothers, who are featured on the film's soundtrack, and the original theatrical Web-Site archive in DVD-ROM form. Topping off the disc are trailers for the film Paycheck and The Indiana Jones DVD Collection.

Tomb Raider 2 is watchable but may mean more to you if you are a fan of the video game that started it all

You know, I can take a lot of crap. I can look at a flawed movie, scrape away the muck and find entertainment (hell, I even loved Waterworld!). I can usually find a piece of what the filmmakers were trying to achieve. Jan De Bont's directorial career has required A LOT of that from me. Which I don't mind. I'm happy to do a bit of the leg work to be entertained. I loved Speed. Ignored the characters and had a blast with Speed 2. Jumped over the plot holes and got caught up in the chase with Twister. I was with The Haunting right up until before the end. But, with Tomb Raider 2 (I'm not spelling out the entire title, that would take too long. Actually, in the time it takes me to type this, I could have written out the title several times over. Oh well), I lost my patience altogether.
Sitting in the cinema, I grew very angry. If I had C4 strapped to my chest, that cinema would have had a Red Alert situation on their hands (kidding, Mr. FBI. Loosen up, dude).
I loved the original. I saw it was flawed, but how can you not have fun in that flick (providing you neatly fall into that demographic)? A very charismatic and sexy lead actress. Spectacular action set pieces. Two big guns and the boobs to match. The perfect formula. How do you drop the ball on that one?!
Enter De Bont. If there was anything wrong with the first one, it was too much spiritual and relationship crap. So, what do they do here, take out the action and add MORE spiritual and relationship crap. And the action that is there, lets slow it down, so nobody can possibly get any kind of excitement from it.
For me, this movie had NO redeeming features. That opening shark fight was the epitome of RIDUCULOUS. Why did she have to cut herself agian to get the sharks attention? What, the massive stab wound in her leg wasn't enough? And why did it kindly escort her to the surface? Why didn't other sharks get attracted to the blood and finish her off in the THREE DAYS she was marooned, feet dangling in the water? Come on!!
The much publicized bike ride on the Great Wall of China was NOTHING. She's not being chased. There's no danger. It lasts only 5 seconds. When will these hack directors learn, a stunt man doing an incredible stunt (or in this case CG), does not a great action scene make. Put a guy behind her with an automatic weapon (which would have fitted into the "story") for God's sake.
Countless times this movie let me down on the action side. The parachute jump that was filmed in one shot from fifty freaking miles off so there is no way we could get a feel of the rush those guys must of had. TERRIBLE!
Jan appears to be the kind of guy who gets a hard on for parachutes opening. The amount of time spent watching parachutes open in this movie could perhaps have been better spent extending some of the fights. Why does the boring parachute jump and a trek through Africa get extended screen time and the only potentially good action sequences get reduced to mere seconds?! UNFORGIVABLE.
But it's not just the big things that make this movie retch-worthy. This is the kind of B-grade bad flick that EVERY SINGLE TIME a boat passes across the screen, it sounds it's horn. When traveling through Africa, bring out the stock footage of EVERY SINGLE SPECIES on the continent. Not one shot is without some kind of wildlife.
And why hasn't De Bont learnt that CG just isn't scary?! (save for Shelob) BOO!!
And drop the coutries!! Too many! That time could hev been spent on a decent action scene!
The more I think of this movie, the more I hate it! HATE IT!!!
The only two good things in this movie should have been Angelina's breasts (but even the exposition on those is virtually non-existent). However, it is a kid in the elevator and SpoungeBob Squarepants. $130 million dollar budget and the best things in it have a height restriction??!!
What the producers of this show need to keep foremost in their attention, is this one simple, yet gravely important fact - IT'S BASED ON A VIDEO GAME!!! You're not trying to adapt a Jane Austin bestseller here! You're priorities are all wrong!
So the first one got crapped on by every critic under the sun. So what? The ones who count (core audience) liked it. They're the ones whose money you want. So when a sequel comes around, why listen to the ones who don't even pay for their movie ticket and chuck in all that [gag] depth, totally alienating your target audience, and causing your company to lose a heap of dough. Oh, but the critics liked it better! Success!!
Bimbos.

The second (and hopefully the last) in the film versions of the Tomb Raider computer game is decidedly better than the first. It achieves this primarily by not being as ridiculous in spots as the first one was. This particular film has the oddity of starting off as a story about a female Indiana Jones but ends up being vastly more like a female James Bond. One of the things I liked about the Tomb Raider computer games was the rather primitive feel to the games: caves, caverns, jungles, rivers, cliffs, ancient ruins. But this second film is stuffed primarily with high tech gadgets and gizmos. The story is pretty uninteresting, but I'm sure no one was really expecting much in the way of plot.

I really, really like Angelina Jolie, but I have to say that at this point she just hasn't hit her stride as an actress. I don't know if it is that she isn't being offered first-rate scripts or if she or her agent is making some abysmal choices about which films to make. She is a good actress, with an absolutely gorgeous, unforgettable face, and she should have been able to craft a better career at this point than she has. She rightly won her Oscar for GIRL INTERRUPTED, but her films since then have been more or less a string of disappointments. Her next couple of films are unlikely to right the boat. I am always extremely sceptical about historical biopics to revive someone's career as a serious actor, so I am leery of what ALEXANDER (with Angelina playing Olympias) and LOVE AND HONOR (with Angelina as Catherine the Great) will mean for her career. She mainly is playing in uninteresting projects, but all indications are that she is a smart, serious woman with some substantive concerns about the world. So why so many lame projects? My lone hope is that all of these projects will make lots of money, and make her one of the first actresses that people think of when they have a hot script. And then I hope that she will make those pictures instead of more TOMB RAIDERs.

While most seem to be either a real big fan of the Lara Croft Tomb Raider movies or someone who despises them, I'll take up the role of a big fan. Just as in the first movie, Angelina Jolie's rendition of Lara Croft is absolutely wonderful. This second film, in what is undoubtedly going to be many, is another great action flick that is enjoyable entertainment from the beginning to the end.

While I only have a vague, passing familiarity with the video games, I can say, without a doubt, that this and the first movie make an enormously enjoyable leap from the pc screen to the silver screen.

Angelina Jolie's performance as Lara Croft, to include her impeccable British accent, is nothing less than stunning. I find it absolutely wonderful to see such a beautiful and agile actress take on the "James Bond" type role and handle it with such seeming ease. While these films won't win her any Oscars, they will indelibly mark her among the tops in action film stars. Gerard Butler's performance as Terry Sheridan makes another great performance by him after his leading role in "Attila."

Director, Jan de Bont deserves a great amount of praise for his direction of this box office smash, something of which he's quite familiar with having other directing credits to include "Speed" and "Twister." The score for this film greatly enhances the entire theatrical experience of the film.

The Premise:

Tomb Raider, Lara Croft finds herself on another mission to the save the world as she discovers an orb, which is the map to the Pandora's Box. Unfortunately for her, another tomb raider shows up when she discovers it and steals it from her, nearly killing her in the process. This other tomb raider happens to be working for Dr. Jonathan Reiss (Ciaran Hinds) who happens to be the worlds leading manufacturer of biological weapons.

Lara is soon visited by the British secret service, MI-6 and she finds herself on a mission to save the world, sanctioned by the Queen herself. All she needs now is a little help from an old "friend" in Terry Sheridan (Gerard Butler), who happens to be a former SAS Major, turned mercenary and who is now stuck in a Russian prison. The British government agrees to secure his freedom to help her.

What follows from there is nothing less than another outstanding Lara Croft Tomb Raider action film that is highly enjoyable and I most certainly look forward to future endeavors in this film series. {ssintrepid}

Special Features:

- Commentary by director Jan de Bont
- Deleted/Alternate scenes
- Featurettes:
*Training
*Vehicles and Weapons
*Stunts
*Visual Effects
*Scoring
- Gerard Butler's Screen Test
-Music Videos:
*Korn "Did My Time"
*The Davey Brothers "Heart Go Faster"
-Original Theatrical Web Site Archive