Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life
Directed by: Jan de Bont
Starring: Angelina Jolie, Gerard Butler, Ciarán Hinds, Noah Taylor, Chris Barrie
Rated: PG-13 for action violence and some sensuality.
Parental Notes: The violence and sensuality in “The Cradle of Life” are fairly low-key, making it suitable for preteens. Some youngsters may find the final sequence, which involves terrifying monsters who can vanish into solid objects at will, a bit too intense.
Summer is the time for movies to entertain you without necessarily taxing your mind. These are the months of the movie one is willing to go see again because, hey, the movie theater is air-conditioned.
“Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life” is definitely a summer movie. With a loose plot, dialog which is at times painfully bad or nonsensical, and a heroine who runs around in improbably attractive gear at all times, it is entertaining without being particularly good.
The story centers around one Jonathan Reiss, a scientist who specializes in creating biological weapons for the highest bidder. He has a lead on Pandora’s Box – which supposedly contains the most horrific plague ever known to man. It’s going to be hard to find, however. Alexander the Great hid it in the titular Cradle of Life, and encoded the map showing its location onto what looks like a huge ball of amber.
Lara Croft, archaeologist and adventurer, is persuaded to stop Reiss. She takes with her an ex lover, Terry Sheridan (Gerard Butler), who has knowledge that will help her retrieve the sphere which contains the map. They travel around the world to save it, taking on Chinese gangs, Reiss’ mercenaries, and finally monstrous creatures guarding the Box.
More laid back than the first film, “The Cradle of Life” lets us appreciate the beautiful visuals provided by landscapes and special effects. From its start in Santorini, Greece, to the conclusion in an underground series of caves apparently designed by M.C. Escher, this movie is gently packed with attractive scenery: a lovely sunken temple, skylines from around the world, and the Great Wall of China.
It’s also packed with action, some of it more probable than others. It’s easy to buy Lara Croft riding sidesaddle and doing target practice from horseback; it’s less easy to buy her saving herself from the depths of the ocean by attracting a shark with her own blood and punching it in the nose to make it swim toward the surface. Still, Lara is fun to watch, if only because she’s one of the female versions of James Bond: improbably attractive, impossibly talented, unutterably cool.
Her assistants, butler Hillary (Chris Barrie) and computer wizard Bryce (Noah Taylor) are back in this film as well, although as with the first installment they are glossed over. It’s sidekick Sheridan who gets most of the screen time, trying to seduce Croft by reminding her of how good they were together while she fends him off like a bored tigress swatting a beetle.
The special effects are rather good, mostly by virtue of there not being many. The last film had plenty of fantastical monsters, but “The Cradle of Life” saves the creepy critters for the end sequence. Up until then, the only effects are concerned with pyrotechnics and the leaps Croft and Sheridan make off of buildings, walls, and the laws of physics.
Director Jan de Bont knows how to make a simple action film. He directed the “Speed” movies and “Twister,” and his knack for making workmanlike summer movies has not faded. There are more holes in the plot than the average piece of Swiss cheese (if it was so important to hide the box where no-one could find it, why did Alexander leave such a detailed map?), but that doesn’t matter. The actors look like they’re having fun, particularly Ciarán Hinds as the villainous Reiss.
Overall, “The Cradle of Life” is a solid action film, worth seeing if you’re looking for a good time or liked the first installment. It’s most definitely not for those in search of intellectual stimulation, realism, or character development, but it is indeed fun.
Theater Review:
Signature Theaters Santa Cruz Cinema 9 is one of a very small chain located in the Santa Cruz area. Although not as modern as the new multiplexes which have been sprouting like mushrooms after a storm for the last few years, it is clean and tidy and has high-quality sound and screens. Popcorn and soda may cost as pretty a penny as at most theaters, but they are fresh and well-mixed, and there’s also a small coffee and coffee-shop-style refreshment counter (look behind you after reaching the top of the stairs).
Those used to the motion-detector, fully-automated, palatial multiplexes may find the Cinema 9 to be a bit of a time warp experience, but it’s a great place to see a movie after a day at the Boardwalk. There are also weekend “Almost Midnight Movies,” old favorites shown at 11:30pm on Friday and Saturday nights at the Cinema 9.
Signature Theaters Santa Cruz Cinema 9
1405 Pacific Avenue
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
(831) 460-2599