LARA CROFT: TOMBRAIDER: THE LEGEND OF CURLY'S GOLD

Director: Jan de Bont (Speed, Twister, The Haunting, Speed 2)
Starring: Angelina Jolie, Gerard Butler, Ciaran Hinds

I'd heard rumors that this sequel to the highly suckworthy original was a notably better movie. The rumors were generally wrong. As positives, this movie did have an appreciably stronger plot line than the original and the character development may have been just a bit better. The problem is that these are comparisons against a truly god-awful movie. This one is only a god-almost-awful movie.

It's unfortunate that the best bits that could have been lifted from the popular video game that is the basis for the movies have been entirely left out of both films. The video game was entirely about an ominous suspense, a quiet tension that followed Lara Croft through the impressive catacombs and labyrinths. This hightened the action sequences. The video game was more about the excitement of discovering incredible lost civilizations than action anyway. The tombs were as important as the raider. In this movie, unfortunately, characters perform silly action spectacles for absolutely no reason. Rather than ride a motorcycle on the street, they ride it on the Great Wall of China. Rather than take a commercial flight, they travel via weird glider/jet things that for even less well explained reasons they crash into a mountain. I think that this video game is one of the few that could have ever spawned a real story for a movie. Unfortunately, the writers blew it. This movie wasn't very good.

Standouts: Angelina Jolie's tight-fitting clothing. Actually, I guess it's not the clothing that's standout.
Blowouts: Most of the rest of the film.

Grade: C-