I feel I need to go on a bit of a rant after seeing this film. Tomb Raider appears to be another film that insists on giving us action scenes which are not only poorly directed but also poorly edited. I presume the choreographer did a good a job though his work will go unnoticed due to the butcher job Mr. Simon West did with all his hard work. I, for one, could not fathom what was going on in any of the gun-toting action sequences. With The Matrix setting bench marks in action film making it still seems surprising to me when directors use this approach to fight scenes, allowing us only fractions of a second to decipher the scene. In the past few years alone both the Wachowski's (The Matrix) and Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger) managed to give measured and assured fight scenes in which we could see the motions and the choreography. I'm surprised at how bad the action in this film was, seen as Simon West did the hugely enjoyable Con Air. It seems that he has worsened with age.
What about everything else in this film, I hear you say? Well, Angelina Jolie is assured and does her job well, but is not outstanding. As for the rest of the actors - I didn't really notice any special performances. Only Chris Barrie (aka Arnold Rimmer) was a shining beacon as he proved huge Hollywood blockbusters were as easy as doing small, low-budget BBC sitcoms. The script was undetectable and did not make the slightest bit of sense. In fact, it seemed that Lara could have prevented the world from ending a good hour before the end of the film. But I would have accepted the discrepancies in the script if getting to the end of the ninety minutes was enjoyable, and not a chore. Alas, it was not to be.
When I went to see this film I was not expecting a work of groundbreaking film making. I was, however, expecting some nice enjoyable popcorn fodder, along the lines of Blade, Triple X, X-Men 2 and Eight Legged Freaks. What I in fact got was a banal exercise in poor editing and bad direction. I just hope that come Tomb Raider 2 the producers have learnt a few lessons and won't accept an inferior multi-million dollar product. Something more exciting next time, please.
For those that care, I gave this film 3/10.
What about everything else in this film, I hear you say? Well, Angelina Jolie is assured and does her job well, but is not outstanding. As for the rest of the actors - I didn't really notice any special performances. Only Chris Barrie (aka Arnold Rimmer) was a shining beacon as he proved huge Hollywood blockbusters were as easy as doing small, low-budget BBC sitcoms. The script was undetectable and did not make the slightest bit of sense. In fact, it seemed that Lara could have prevented the world from ending a good hour before the end of the film. But I would have accepted the discrepancies in the script if getting to the end of the ninety minutes was enjoyable, and not a chore. Alas, it was not to be.
When I went to see this film I was not expecting a work of groundbreaking film making. I was, however, expecting some nice enjoyable popcorn fodder, along the lines of Blade, Triple X, X-Men 2 and Eight Legged Freaks. What I in fact got was a banal exercise in poor editing and bad direction. I just hope that come Tomb Raider 2 the producers have learnt a few lessons and won't accept an inferior multi-million dollar product. Something more exciting next time, please.
For those that care, I gave this film 3/10.