Tomb Raider

Review by James Anthony

If you are feeling a little bored, or lacking in energy, Dr Anthony has a suggestion that may assist. Go and see Tomb Raider for a large shot of adrenalin.

Tomb Raider is a $150 million-dollar-plus action extravaganza based upon the character Lara Croft from the massive-selling Tomb Raider series of computer and console games.

Lara is a rich girl with a real taste for action and she gets plenty of it as an archeological artifact gatherer (tomb raider), whose cyber adventures have taken her around the globe and into some pretty tight spots.

In the movie, Lara discovers herself caught up in a plan by a secret society to find the two missing halves of an ancient magical triangle and, through it, gain possession of time.

And time is of the essence for the Illuminati, because a once-in-5000-years alignment of the planets will show them the way - if they can get hold of a magical map that just so happens to be in Lara's house.

Instead of just asking for a short loan of the item, the Illuminati decide to steal it from Lara's massive mansion and all hell breaks loose as a squad of heavily armed men find she is no pushover.

From there the action heads to Cambodia, Venice and the frozen wastes of the north and through some pretty amazing sets as Lara and the Illuminati battle it out for the relics in some very spectacular action sequences.

There are also some sensational special effects that apart from adding a mystical quality to the movie, also turn giant stone statues into animated monsters.

For those who wouldn't, until now, know Lara Croft from a bar of soap there is plenty of entertainment in the movie. Many in the audience at the premiere in Melbourne were clapping loudly at the spectacular stunts on show.

For Tomb Raider (the game) fans, however, the burning question is: "Can Jolie bring their heroine to life on the big screen?" Well, in a very short word, yes. The actress must have done a lot of study on Lara and watched how she moves across the monitor and the types of stunts she does because, from the very first scene, she captures the celebrated collection of pixels perfectly.

Whether walking, fighting or blazing away with her two handguns, Jolie is Lara Croft. Looks-wise, the pair could almost be twins. How about the accent? She's spot on and has a nicely clipped, upper-class British way with her words.

How about the figure? This is one we normally wouldn't touch, but when a buxom, athletic game creation sells more than a billion dollars worth of software it is a question that has to be answered. So, for all the boys out there (read 12 through 98), Jolie definitely fills the part. Will girls like her? They should.

Lara is played as a tough, intelligent, independent person - albeit one with a sensitive side - who has an extravagant taste for adventure. If there is a doubt, it would be for the violent ways she uses to defend herself from gun-bearing nasties. (Although there seemed to be an awful lot of female-sounding cheering from the audience as she got stuck into the baddies.)

And, in Tomb Raider there are a lot of nasties. The chief bad guy is Powell (Iain Glenn) who is cool, suave and has such a nice way of being vicious you just have to like him. It's good to see him back on the screen after what seems like an eternity since he wowed us in the early '90s.

A semi-nasty, or else a misguided tomb-raiding fortune hunter, is Alex West (Daniel Craig). He is well known to Lara (they have a history) but keeps getting off-side with her because of his enjoyment of unethical adventure and making huge money out of it.

Chris Barrie, better known as Rimmer the hologram on Red Dwarf, is Lara's butler and he plays the role with more charm than the small-screen characters we usually see him play.

Australia's Noah Taylor is her cockney techno-whizz who has a vast array of gadgets - including a training attack robot - to keep her on top in a devious world.

Simon West directed with a video game-pop video camera eyepiece in and the result is a fast, action-packed adventure that pays homage to Indiana Jones while creating a new screen sensation. And Lara will be.

She's been let out and, like the contents of Pandora's Box, will not be returned easily to inactivity. And, we suspect, the public wouldn't let her.

Go girl!