I'll say it first, and then move on to my pseudo-rant. This was a surprisingly good movie, and as I say this I put a foot note or an asterix beside it which would read "for what it is." Y'see, I'm not saying that Tomb Raider was a great movie, but I'm saying that for the kind of movie that it is, it was good.
Allow me to explain. Take a look at all the movies that have been made over the years that were based on video games: Wing Commander, Super Mario Brothers, Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, Double Dragon... you get the idea. The only one of these that was anywhere near decent was Mortal Kombat. All the others were horrid pieces of crap of varying degrees.
So, as you can see, Tomb Raider's competition in the "made from a video-game" market isn't exactly great. But then you get to the fact that Tomb Raider has competition in the "tomb raiding" department, and quite unfair competition at that. I speak of the Indiana Jones movies, of course. Action, adventure, and tomb raiding wrapped up with some great humour and, for the time, great special effects. Also on the list are The Mummy and The Mummy Returns. Again, great adventures with more than their fair share of tomb raiding, humour, action, and great special effects. As you can see, Tomb Raider has relative shit for competition on the one hand, but fabulous competition on the other. What is a fledgling movie to do?
Simple: set itself apart from its video-game-based predecessors while trying to make a name for itself among its adventure-loving archeological fellows. Sounds simple enough, right? Of course. So, what's the problem? Also simple enough: not enough adventuring and actioning and funny-bits.
But, perhaps it would be best if I started to give more-than-general references, such as story and characters, as it were.
Well, the plot is somewhat simple for an excuse for pseudo-globe trotting. Basically, Lara Croft (played by Angelina Jolie) finds some sort of strange clock that just starts ticking in some secret part of her house. She takes it out and examines it, yadda yadda yadda. Turns out it's the key to finding some ancient artifact that allows its possessor to control time itself. The li'l device is stolen from her by the bad guys (buncha people from a secret, ages old orginazation called "The Illuminati" (ask your local conspiracy theorist about them). So, she's rushing to get the clock back and form the triangle herself before the bad guys do and, essentially, save the world.
Problems? Oooh, this movie's got 'em up the wazzoo! First of all, for its name you'd think there'd be more raiding of tombs. There isn't all that much. Three tombs get broken into in this movie, and each one only really provides one big room for puzzling out one trap. Not exactly the Temple of Doom. It doesn't help that there are only four action sequences throughout the entire flick (though they're all fairly decent). It also doesn't help that Lara's wit consists solely of dry sarcastic remarks, no real barbs or jokes, and no real chafing against any of the other characters. Another thing that doesn't help is that her two sidekicks (the butler as played by Chris Barrie--Rimmer from "Red Dwarf"--and the computer whiz nerd-type guy; not enough of these two, in my opinion. Oh, and the sub-plot/motivation for Ms. Croft, ie: reunification with her dead father? It was nothing new, quite predictable, but it at least helped to push the plot along.
With all that said, did the movie have any saving graces? Yes. It had a story, first of all. True, the story was a bit hard to believe and not quite as mystical as we're used to (Indiana Jones and The Mummy movies providing us with that), but it was there. And for all her shallowness, the people behind the flick at least TRIED to make Croft into a real character, not just a real-life rendition of her video-game persona. Also, as I said, the action sequences were pretty cool, and the movie even took its time in moving the plot along somewhat. What does this mean? It means they seemed to try. And that's all that really matters, I suppose.
The bottom line? I can see a sequel (Jolie already signed up for one, actually), and hopefully they'll try for a bit more tomb raiding and humour there. For now, though, you're better off with Harrison Ford or Brendan Fraser. Even so, for it is, Tomb Raider is a surprisingly good movie. That's not to say that it's a great movie, but it's good.
For what it is.