Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (12A)
21/08/03 UCI, Basildon, Essex

Ok so I enjoyed the first Tomb Raider movie, (see my review). This sequel is even better, and improves on many of the elements that I did criticise about the first film. I liked the involvement of MI6 into the equation of the script with this one, giving it an almost 'James Bond' style espionage type thriller aspect. There is even a kind of 'female Bruce Lee' element here as well, what with the Chinese backdrop. What is lacking in computer graphics ' which is what one would expect to see with a Lara Croft production surely? ' is made up for by pleasant photography of all things! I liked the title sequences and found that there wasn't much really lacking about the movie as a whole. It's well done. The actors seem completely unknown though. We need an 'all-star' cast for something as 'good' as what this should be, surely? I personally don't think Angelina Jolie is the 'perfect' Lara. One could probably pull a more suited individual 'off the street' to copy the real computerised Lara as she should be. Why oh why do we have to have American actors show us how to act?? That said she did extremely well on all counts - very impressive.