Tomb Raider (2001) (4 Stars)

I picked up this film today partly because I'm on a super-heroine kick at the moment, partly because I said I would re-watch the old Lara Croft films after I watched the new film. That was in March 2018. Was it really so long?

I vaguely remembered that the two films with Angelina Jolie weren't much good. After watching "Tomb Raider", sometimes called "Lara Croft, Tomb Raider" today, I wonder why I thought that. The film has its weaknesses, but it also has a lot of things in its favour. It's an exciting action film featuring a beautiful actress with two big guns. That's reason enough for me to take it seriously.

The plot is that the Illuminati are looking for two halves of an ancient mystic triangle which can only be combined once every 5000 years when all nine planets are in alignment. (That's the first plot weakness; more than three planets never align). The two halves can only be found using a key that only works at the beginning of the alignment. Whoever holds the triangle can control time. With one week to go the Illuminati don't even know where the key is.

That's where Lara Croft comes in. She finds a strange clock among the items left to her by her late father. She shows it to her fellow archaeologist Alex West, and he immediately recognises it as the key. He passes on the information to the Illuminati. They steal the key from Lara's mansion, so she follows them around the world to get it back, getting involved with the search for the triangle.

This rather tenuous plot is all the excuse that's needed for scene after scene of Angelina Jolie punching, shooting or stabbing the bad guys. She qualifies as a super-hero, even if her origin is in computer games, not in comics.

Angelina Jolie looks the part, even though she needed slight enhancing. She had to pad her bra to look big enough for the role. The end result looks spectacular. Most people who think of Lara Croft today imagine her as looking like Angelina Jolie's portrayal. She's the one that cosplayers model their outfits on.

Here are a few photos of the Canadian cosplay model Bianca Beauchamp. She doesn't need any bra padding.

Bianca is always alert.

Her two guns are ready to take out any danger.

Bianca has her eyes on you. Are you man enough to challenge her?

Even when she's undressed you shouldn't be over-confident.

You think she hasn't noticed you, but her fingers are already on the trigger.

Success Rate:  + 0.4

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