Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider is a serviceable but formulaic early 2000s video game adaptation. The plot is a thin MacGuffin chase involving planetary alignments and time-controlling artifacts, strung together with little internal logic or dramatic tension. Angelina Jolie commits fully to the role and has genuine screen presence, but the supporting cast is largely wasted and characterization is shallow across the board. Cinematography is a modest bright spot — the film has some stylish action set-pieces and decent location photography in Cambodia and Iceland, though nothing truly distinctive. The concept of adapting the Tomb Raider IP was reasonably novel for its time, but the execution leans heavily on by-the-numbers action-adventure tropes borrowed from Indiana Jones and James Bond without adding much of its own voice. The ending is rushed and emotionally hollow, resolving the Illuminati threat and the personal father subplot without earning either payoff.