Tomb Raider (2001) Is Better Than You Remember

TL;DR

The 2001 Tomb Raider film deserves reappraisal as a genuinely fun adventure with a great cast, strong action, and Jolie's irreplaceable charisma.

Key Points

• 1.The film was unfairly dismissed by critics at release. Snooty reviewers programmed to look down on video game adaptations derided it as a cheesy, forgettable Indiana Jones knockoff, leaving it poorly remembered even among Lara Croft fans.
• 2.Director Simon West and Angelina Jolie shaped the film collaboratively. West combined ideas from multiple aborted screenplays, while Jolie contributed her own ideas including casting her real father Jon Voight and pushing for more nude scenes, which Paramount overruled to keep a PG rating.
• 3.The cast is surprisingly strong for an early 2000s video game adaptation. Iain Glen is suave and menacing as villain Manfred Powell, a pre-Casino Royale Daniel Craig appears as a weak but watchable love interest/rival, and Jolie herself mastered a British accent and performed most of her own stunt and wire work.
• 4.The plot has notable logical holes the video openly acknowledges. Why did Lara's father wait until days before a world-ending planetary alignment to warn her? Why didn't the Illuminati use her as leverage or simply destroy the clock themselves? These contrivances weaken an otherwise entertaining script.
• 5.Jolie's Lara Croft stands as the gold standard compared to all successors. The 2018 remake with Alicia Vikander tried to be a gritty thriller and produced a generic, forgettable hero lacking Jolie's charisma, while a forthcoming Sophie Turner version is awaited with little enthusiasm.