Last night I saw the movie Tomb Raider with my friends. I have to admit, I did not expect much when we decided to go see it. I was not sure what the story would be about, but I knew it would not have a “deep” plot (hot women with tight shirt running around). I have nothing against great looking women in tight shirts, but I find the plot more important.

Good Points-
Hot women in tight shirt. Butler and mechanic/ computer wiz friend are funny and made the movie a little more meaningful. Good special effects, sound (but today’s movies all have that…).

Bad Points-
Plot. I will include the plot at the bottom for those who do not want the story ruined for them if they wish to see it. The movie is very predictable, and the action comes in short “bursts”. The movie is about an hour and a half but feels shorter. The movie is clearly separated in: emotional moment, prepare for action, action. The completion of the tasks lasted less than five minutes, which defeats the purpose of an action movie (Lara is supposedly that good). Bad guy, bad and predictable. I guess what I’m trying to say is, “the movie is predictable and the story short, which leaves the audience with an empty and bored feeling as they leave the theater”.

“Traps”-
This section will focus on attention grabbers which led people to go see it-

Angelina Jolie “shower scene”- you see more in a shampoo commercial.

Monster Fight- short “too easy”.

Angelina Running Scene- Actually this one was worth it…

Double Guns- The big monsters were never beaten with her guns (makes sense but why does she use pistols instead of shotgun then?).

Lara’s House under attack- I felt it was overdone, but did have the James Bomb feel to it.

DANGER, DANGER: PLOT (might make movie even less interesting than it already is if you read this)-
Lara Croft’s father has disappeared for a few years now and all the planets are aligning (happens every 5000 years). Lara has a dream of her father and remembers a chest hidden in a secret room in her mansion. Lara find a clock inside the chest in the secret room, and has her mechanic/computer wiz friend figure out what it is. The clock started when the planets aligned. They destroy the clock and find a strange key inside it. The key seems to have two little clocks which are counting down. Lara goes to an old friend of her dad and shows him the key. He tells Lara to bring it to the “bad guy” introduced at the beginning, so Lara brings “the bad guy” pictures of the key. “The bad guy” pretends not to know what it is and has his private army retrieve the key from Lara’s house. Most of the house gets destroyed and the key is stolen. The following morning, Lara receives a letter written by her father which explains his research and her mission (and the title of a book in their library which contains another one of his letters which explains her mission in greater detail). Lara learns that she has to find a white flower (I forget the name) in Egypt (I think) and that will be the “key” to finding half of a triangle of time (or something like that, I was a little annoyed with stereotypical science fiction “rules”). Lara finds the flower given to her by an annoying little girl who keeps laughing and falls in a pit which leads to the tomb. “The bad guy” is there with his immense army (owning a private army is expensive and probably illegal, but I can’t be sure). “The bad guy” has Lara’s key and Lara helps him get half the triangle by finding the “real” hole in which the key goes in. A pillar falls and breaks a bubble of blue liquid containing the triangle. Lara (already on the pillar, as extra weight require to break the bubble) grabs the one half of the triangle and puts it in her New Age High Tech backpack (You can purchase your Tomb Raider NAHT backpack at Old Navy for only $39.95). The blue liquid fills the veins of the rock statues which turn to life but are killed with two shots from a .22 caliber pistol, not very challenging. One big monster comes alive and Lara shoves the pillar (still swinging) after emptying out all her ammo on the monsters face, and the monster explodes into rubble. Lara escapes the tomb and “the bad guy” and meets “the bad guy” again in Italy. She learns her father was part of this group which seems to be a “bad guy” group and “the bad guy” and she have an agreement not to kill each other, and to share the triangle to go back in time. At this point in the movie, it is obvious that “the bad guy” will try to kill Lara once he has procured the stone triangle of time. They go to the Forgotten City (I’m sure you’ve never heard that one before) use the key again and get the second half of the triangle painlessly and Lara goes back to see her father who tells her not to use the triangle because it was not meant to be, hence the mission was completely useless. Lara destroys the triangle, learns “the bad guy” killed her father (What a surprise I’m sure you did not see that one coming) never really explains why. Lara kills bad guy escapes and happy ending.

Not explained-
Why father was killed. The point of the mission. Father tells her to get triangle or something awful would happen. I imagined the earth would explode and Lara would have to go back in time and change the events, but no. I guess the awful thing was just “the bad guy” who could not figure out the secret of the triangle without Lara anyway, so whole plot contradicts itself.





Recommended:
No

Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up to Age 4