I'm not familiar with the Tomb Raider game, as I long ago outgrew my need to play video games for fun. I understand Tomb Raider is one of the most popular video games ever, and that Lara Croft is one of the most popular characters. Now Lara Croft has gone from being a star in the video world to her first starring movie, "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider." Angelina Jolie (Oscar winner for "Girl, Interrupted") stars as Lara, an archaeologist who's on a mission to save the world. Among the possessions she has inherited from her late father, Lord Richard Croft (Jon Voight, Jolie's real-life father) is a clock that has started to run backwards to the time the planets will be in a period of perfect alignment.

The clock is one of three pieces that are needed at this period of alignment for whoever possesses them to control time. The other two pieces used to be one piece 5000 years ago, until the old possessors learned the evil connected with time control. The piece, which was one big triangle, was broken into two smaller triangles. One of the halves has fallen into the hands of a Venice-based society called the Illuminati, who has hired its own archaeologist, Manfred Powell (Iain Glen), to find the other pieces so they can control time. Powell and the Illuminati know their time for control is at hand, and the society demands results from Powell. He knows Lara has the clock, so he leads a team of armed Illuminati soldiers to Lara's London home and takes the clock.

Lara is valuable to their quest, though, for she has key knowledge to make the quest succeed. She knows where the third piece is located, and quickly finds it. She has also received a letter from her father, which he had prepared in the event of his death, telling her precisely what will create time control. Lara also has the help of two trusted associates: Bryce (Noah Taylor), a computer and electronics expert who has created a robot that keeps her senses sharp, and Alex (Daniel Craig), a fellow explorer and love interest of Lara's who acts like he's on Powell's side. Powell also has secrets for Lara that will come as a surprise for her.

On one hand, it's nice that director and co-writer Simon West ("Con Air," "The General's Daughter") has given "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" some semblance of a story. Unfortunately, the story resembles other, better screen stories that have graced the screen during the last twenty years, such as "Raiders Of The Lost Ark" and the recent "The Mummy" films. Like Indiana Jones and Rick O'Connell, Lara Croft is on a mission to save the world. Like Rick, Lara battles superhuman forces that seem too easy to dispatch. A blast from a gun or a cut from a sword finishes them. Unlike the others, she does it with no sense of suspense or excitement. In her world, Lara is an action hero first, and an explorer second. Saving the world comes as a by-product for her counterparts.

Jolie and Voight give this movie more class than it deserves. Their scenes work better than any of the mindless and derivative action sequences of "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider," and give the movie a limited amount of a third dimension of character. Since this movie is based on a video game, though, the action must come first, and the story second. Lara Croft looks less like an archaeologist and more like a pin-up girl. It's too bad that the movie chose not to go all the way and make her as convincing as an explorer as she is an action hero. Jolie is clearly having fun in "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider," but she is trapped in the conventions of the video world.

Recommended:
No

Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age