Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003)

Directed by: Jan de Bont | 117 minutes | action, adventure, fantasy, thriller | Actors: Angelina Jolie, Gerard Butler, Chris Barrie, Robert Atiko, Robert Cavanah, Ciarán Hinds, Djimon Hounsou, Noah Taylor, Til Schweiger, Simon Yam, Terence Yin, Daniel Caltagirone, Fabiano Martell, Jonathan Coyne, Ronan Vibert

The big question is of course whether Jan de Bont has succeeded in making a worthy and fascinating successor to ‘Lara Croft: Tomb Raider’. Despite the fact that there is little room for a totally renewed concept, he managed to make the second part a better film. The story, (Lara Croft visits several countries and continents in the film in order to find Pandora’s Box before Jonathan Reiss, a Nobel laureate, who supports terrorism by selling biochemical weapons), may not be original or very deep, but he knows how to keep the viewer’s attention. The combination of beautiful locations, special effects and plenty of action scenes make the film more than interesting.

Angelina Jolie does not have to show many acting talents in this film, but the role of Lara Croft is physically demanding. It therefore argues for her that she has done most of the stunts herself. The chemistry between Angelina Jolie and her opponent, Gerard Butler, is not optimal, but scores just enough for this film so that it does not come across as disturbing. The other actors and actresses actually have more of a supporting role because all the attention is focused on Lara Croft. In fact, we are dealing here with a female 007. Here too it is the battle of good against evil, in which good triumphs in the end. Like in a ‘Bond’ movie, this movie has a villain who is willing to go to extremes to gain absolute power. Sent by the British government, Lara Croft is just as stubborn as James and plays on men like James does with the female beauty. So we could go on and on about mentioning similarities. Where new ‘James Bond’ films are regularly released, we’ll just have to wait and see if the character Lara Croft offers the filmmaker enough opportunities to make a third part. In any case, this part is a must for Lara fans and action movie buffs.