V.G. Movies #13: Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.

[Welcome back to the Evolution of Video Game Movies series. Every week, I will be moving forward through time, starting with the earliest and ending with the most recent of video game movies. I will be detailing the histories of the games and how the films came about, and both my and fan reaction to the adaptations. Practically all of my background information is either common knowledge or from Wikipedia. So without further ado, let's move on to the next film on the list.]

THE HISTORY

In 1996, a production company named Core Design released a game called Tomb Raider on the not-so-successful Sega Saturn, along with PC. Not too long after those releases, it came out on the PlayStation, bringing the system the success it acquired during the mid-90s. The game stars one of the most famous and popular female video game icons, Lara Croft, a British adventurer akin to Indiana Jones. Interestingly, Lara was just a male placeholder until they came up with another character. But as they developed the game further, they realized a female was the best idea, so Lara stayed.

The games' stories don't particularly matter, as the film doesn't follow any of them. But what each game does include are a set of expectations. At her home, Lara has a butler named Wilson who will follow her around. She goes on adventures around the world, typically having to fight rivals, mythical monsters or other magical things. There's a lot of puzzle solving, and there's a lot of gunplay and skin-revealing and/or skin-tight outfits.

The games gained such an immense popularity that the stress of it was too much for Core Design. After the fourth game, they "killed off" Lara, only to have a fifth game that gave us a flashback adventure... and a sixth game that brought her back to life. Unfortunately, the sixth game bombed, and Core Design handed over the title to Crystal Dynamics in 2006... but that's a story for next time.

In 2001, director Simon West (previously known for Con Air) gave us a film version starring the perfectly cast Angelina Jolie. And most people agreed that Jolie was great casting, but... the film wasn't all that great. However, it did hold the highest-grossing video game film title up until the Prince of Persia movie (more on that one later this year).

I tried playing one of the games years ago, but couldn't get into it (and I didn't like how the controls worked). But I did see this film in theater and remember not disliking it. We all know, however, that memories of yore do not necessarily hold up today. With that said, let's see what I feel about this adaptation.


THE FILM

Lara Croft (Angelina Jolie) is a treasure hunter and/or tomb raider who lives in a giant mansion with her butler, Hillary (Chris Barrie) and techie friend Bryce (Noah Taylor). One day she finds a clock left by her father (Jon Voight... in the movie, too), which brings her into an adventure against the Illuminati--including member Manfred Powell (Iain Glen)--to get two triangle pieces and become masters of time. Also helping, though which side is questionable, is an old friend named Alex West (Daniel Craig). So what'd I think?

Boobs. Boobs boobs boobs. That's the biggest part of the character of Lara Croft (no pun intended). They even padded Angelina Jolie up so she could be closer to the video game character in size (and even they thought the 36DD size was too big and unrealistic to jump Jolie up that big). But with the breast size and tight shirts, it's really almost all you can think about while watching anything in this film. There's even a slow motion running sequence in the climax. The other key character trait? Her guns. And she does shoot them. But you know what I find kind of funny? She never once shoots a human with them in the whole film (she shoots at things that will fall on/hurt/whatever other humans, but never does a bullet come out of her gun and go into another person).

Seriously, though, from what I've read, they tried to toss in some key characteristics of Lara for the fans, despite it being a brand new story and... changing a lot. The butler's name is different. They added in a tech friend. They add in the character of Alex West, pretending that there is some personal history between the two which is hardly explained.

The biggest fault of the film is almost the laziness of the story and characters. I mean, the story is there and it isn't half bad. But what it's lacking is any sort of development or depth. The story goes places that don't make any sense sometimes. What's with the little ghost girls? What the hell was going on at the climax with Croft and the bad guy running up the pyramid after the pyramid piece thing? And a handful of other things that just happen with no explanations.

Then you have the characters, which are bland. Lara has the relationship with her father, but besides that, she's just a pair of boobs with guns. Her father's story is somewhat interesting, but it could have been fleshed out a lot more. The casting of Jolie's actual father was inspired, but they share so few scenes that the chemistry isn't given time to build, making me really not care. The character of Alex West (the last name taken from the director) is dull, but it's not anything to do with Daniel Craig, who I actually think gives more personality here than in more of his recent roles. The most backstory we're given is a picture of Croft in the military with Alex West in the background. That's it. You don't know if he's supposed to be good or bad, how he ended up working with the bad guys, any kind of motivation outside "money," or any other real connection with Lara. The character of Bryce is fun, but pointless. He invents a giant fighting practice robot named Simon (after the director... I'm sensing a pattern here), and he helps once or twice in the first half of the film, but is otherwise useless. The butler is awesome, though, but totally underused. And then, of course, we're just given your standard villains; nothing special or interesting about them whatsoever.

On the flip side we get some thought-out and fun action sequences. They might be over-the-top and completely unbelievable, but they're a lot of fun. I'm particularly a fan of the mansion break-in sequence that begins with the bungee cord ballet. There are a lot of fun moments in that whole action sequence. I think had they spent as much time planning out the characters and whatnot as they did the action, this could have been an even more solid flick.

The visuals were also done pretty well, too. The robot Simon looks great. The climax bits look good, and the CGI still holds up there. Everything was made to look great and realistic... which really shocked me come the Cambodian temple sequence. There is so much crappy CGI here, it made me wonder if the same team worked on part of the film that worked on the rest. The silver liquid that makes an equally CGI stone piece float into the air is awful. Hell, Terminator 2 made silver liquid look 100% better almost 20 years prior. Then you have the stone monsters, all of which look incredibly fake and do not hold up well at all. But, still, everything outside of this whole set piece looks really, really good.

On the whole, I actually don't think it's a bad movie. It's not great, but it ain't bad. Some effort was put into this... just not nearly enough. I think it needed a few more script revisions. The action itself was really good and a lot of fun, even if the majority of it was physically implausible. The film is moderately entertaining with the potential of being very entertaining. But I guess they were a little too preoccupied with the guns and the boobs.


Stop Saying OK! OK.

KUNG FU PANDA 2.

When I went into the first Kung Fu Panda, I had such low expectations, but ended up leaving the theater loving it. This time, I went in with much higher expectations... but was that a mistake? We're reunited with the Dragon Warrior, Po (Jack Black), and the Furious Five: Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Viper (Lucy Liu), Crane (David Cross), and Mantis (Seth Rogen). They've become pretty close, even Po with their master, Shifu (Dustin Hoffman). But when Shen (Gary Oldman) decides to take over China using weapons of metal and fire (essentially a hybrid of cannons and fireworks), something so powerful that kung fu can't even stop it, it's up to our heroes to stop him. Unfortunately, a dangerous connection with Shen and something from Po's past comes back to haunt him, and he realizes an upsetting truth about his father, Mr. Ping (James Hong). Also giving their voice talents are Michelle Yeoh as a Soothsayer, Danny McBride as the Wolf Boss, and Dennis Haysbert and Jean-Claude Van Damme as two kung fu masters, Ox and Croc (respectively).

One thing I have to give the movie credit for is that it's very much a continuation of the story and not just a rehash of the original. They build on the characters, give them new challenges, and go through a new story. In the first, they were definitely antagonistic tendencies between Po and the Furious Five, particularly Tigress. But this time through, they're all pretty much friends, and there's even something hinted at and developing between Po and Tigress that I hope is explored further in a third chapter. Also, there's a lot of heart in this movie, Po and his internal struggle to discover who he is and who his family truly is. And there were some points near the end, I'll admit, that almost made me cry.

One of the great things about the first movie, though, too, were the action set pieces. Despite being an animated film, the action scenes were stunning and beautifully choreographed. This time through, there's a very slight drop in quality, but there are still some very fun moments. And, again, there's the "special technique" Po must learn that will inevitably help him defeat the enemy. This time it's a bit more obvious throughout, but it's still a good payoff (with a welcome and pretty hardcore "ska-doosh").

Strangely, I think where the movie suffers most is also one of its strongest areas. On the one side, you have a great story with Po struggling about his family and his history. It's a great, heartfelt side-story that brings characters together and really makes you feel for them. Unfortunately, there's the other story of the film--the one involving Shen--that's not as strong. It feels very shallow, and it could have been much deeper and more explored. They try to parallel it with Po's, but it barely misses the mark. I think with maybe one more draft of the script, they could have worked out the kinks, and things might not have felt so uneven or, at times, flat.

The animation, though, is absolutely gorgeous. There are so many fantastic settings and scenes that are amazing to look at. And there's a secondary style used for flashbacks and dream sequences (we saw this briefly in the first film) that is used frequently throughout the film that is completely fantastic. I also saw this one in 3D, and between this and How To Train Your Dragon, Dreamworks seems to know how to use the format. The movie would look stunning either way, and you probably won't miss anything if you don't see it in 3D, but it just adds a little something extra if you're willing to pay for it.

Overall, it doesn't quite reach the heights of the first film. Regardless, it is still a pretty dang entertaining movie, and another solid entry as of late for Dreamworks. If they decided to turn this into a trilogy, I'd still pay to see a third to see where they can take the characters and their relationships with each other. The animation is fantastic, the characters are good, the fighting is fun, and the humor is there. With a few more tweaks, it could have been outstanding, but for what it is, it's just really good.


A Keanu 'Whoa'

CHANGELING.

I know this is normally a day for DVDs Or Death!... but I'm going to skip that this week in place of something magical. Yes... a movie review! I saw it last night... felt like sharing. So here you go!

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When you have a Clint Eastwood-helmed picture, you know you’ll probably get at least two things out of it: great acting and depression (seriously, this man needs to make a comedy or something). Changeling is about a lot of things, but it starts when Christine Collins’ (Angelina Jolie) son, Walter (Gattlin Griffith), disappears. For months the LAPD looks for him and finally find him in a whole other state. Unfortunately, according to Christine, it’s not actually her son. And no matter what she says, neither Captain J.J. Jones (Jeffrey Donovan) or Chief Davis (Colm Feore) will do anything to help, and actually say that she’s crazy and making up lies. But when Detective Lester Ybarra (Michael Kelly) stumbles upon a seemingly unrelated case, things start to line up together and, with the help of Reverend Gustav Briegleb (John Malkovich), Christine will do anything in her power to get to the bottom of things and find her son (assuming he’s still alive).

Now this was a long movie, but it didn’t feel like it dragged at any point in time (except maybe the beginning, but that was needed to set everything up). It actually held my interest all the way through up until the Return of the King-style ending, wherein it felt like the movie just kept jumping further and further along, never wanting to quit. But in the end, it all added together for a really good (albeit slightly depressing) experience.

The best thing this movie had going for it was the acting. My goodness, was this movie acted well. From the big names of the film (Jolie and Malkovich), to the supporting roles (Donovan and Kelly), and even to the barely-in-it roles, this movie was acted phenomenally. Amy Ryan, despite the very few scenes she was in, stole every one of them. After the great job in Gone Baby Gone wherein she held a good chunk of a movie, to the great job she does in this, wherein she’s only in a few scenes, you can really tell she’s heading for the top.

The next thing to bring up would be the look/feel of the movie, all brought together by the direction of Clint Eastwood. The movie felt very 1920s, from the clothes and houses to the cars and speech styles. It was quite believable and done very well. The camera work also stood out to me, though there were a couple interesting choices that I might not have stuck with in the end (a few scenes where the camera was stuck behind John Malkovich’s head, leaving for an awkward angle/shot).

There really isn’t much else I feel I can say about the film. It’s one of Angelina’s best that she’s done, and I think one of Eastwood’s best, as I, for once, actually don’t feel it would be overrated. The only thing I might have done would to have changed the title, as the only thing the movie had to do with mythological Changelings was a switched child—and that whole plot of the movie wasn’t even the only focus. Halfway in, the movie changes completely with a new added plot, and it starts becoming more about something else entirely (but then brings it all back to the switched boy… but still). Great performances. Great story. Great film.

Royale With Cheese

KUNG FU PANDA.

So I finally got around to seeing Kung Fu Panda, and it really was better than I thought it was gonna be. Po (Jack Black) is a panda that sells noodles at his father’s shop. He idolizes the five greatest kung fu warriors of the time: Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Viper (Lucy Liu), and Crane (David Cross), who are all apprentices of Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman). But when Oogway (Daniel Duk Kim) prophesizes the return of the evil Tai Lung (Ian McShane), he and Shifu realize it is time to announce the identity of the Dragon Warrior. In what seems to be an accident (though there are no accidents), Po is chosen as the Dragon Warrior, despite his lack of skill and overweight body. Much to the chagrin of Shifu and his five disciples, Po must now train to become the Dragon Warrior of legend and defeat Tai Lung.

First I want to talk about the voice acting. The only name I knew coming into this was Jack Black. Watching the movie, I immediately noticed David Cross’ voice, and recognized the voices of Jackie Chan, Dustin Hoffman, and Ian McShane, though I couldn’t place who they were. Actually, I thought the entire time that Ian McShane was actually Eddie Izzard, because they sounded awfully alike here. It was Shifu/Dustin Hoffman’s voice that drove me crazy the entire time, as I couldn’t place it. But when the credits began rolling and I saw all these big names, including Angelina Jolie, Seth Rogen, and Lucy Liu, I was incredibly surprised. They all did a nice job.

The animation style was really well done, and I loved the little anime sequence at the beginning before it transferred over to computer animation. The action sequences were a lot of fun, even for a children’s animated movie. There were a lot of fun fight scenes, most of them happening back-to-back starting with the dumpling fight with Po and Shifu. And the final fight wasn’t too short or anticlimactic at all, as sometimes happens in martial arts movies. I thought it was just right.

The movie was also pretty funny and had me laughing quite a bit. Even by the time the ‘ska-doosh’ came around, I had a big smile on my face just because of the context of the scene. What I particularly liked was that the jokes weren't childish fart jokes, and the movie didn’t attempt to put in adult innuendo humor like Shrek to appease the adults. The jokes worked all around the board, and the movie didn’t even have to rely on slapstick non-stop, either. I was laughing from the opening anime scene with just Jack Black’s narration.

There’s not much more to say. It was thoroughly enjoyable, and I wouldn’t mind watching it again. It didn’t have to throw in a romantic subplot, and it didn’t have to have any crazy twist ending like most movies these days, and that was really a breath of fresh air. Just something simple and fun. It was a relatively linear plot, and mostly predictable, but the way it was done worked. I liked it. Awesomeness.

Royale With Cheese

WANTED.

Wanted? Wow. Wesley (James McAvoy) is a nobody who works in a cubicle and whose girlfriend is cheating on him with his best friend. His life basically sucks, and nothing special is coming out of it. Then, one day, Fox (Angelina Jolie) shows up and tells him that his father was a great assassin and has recently been killed by a man named Cross (Thomas Kretchmann). So Fox takes him to The Fraternity, a sect of awesome assassins led by Sloan (Morgan Freeman). There, Wesley must train to become a great assassin like his father in order to get revenge and kill Cross.

Let’s start off with the obvious: the action. The action was amazing, and it wasn’t all special effects and Matrix-like stunts. Some of it was just pure fist brawling. The blood was high and splattery, and the other action was intense. My adrenaline level almost never went down. And the big shootout climax reminded me a lot of the climax in Equilibrium in which Christian Bale makes his way through the government building in order to get to his final opponent. It was just plain awesome and fun. And some of the movie’s action was even so hard-hitting that it was cringe-worthy (most of those were in the training scenes/montage).

But one aspect in going into this movie I wasn’t expecting was the humor. This movie was really funny, specifically the voice-over narration from McAvoy. He pulled off the character very well. Whereas The Matrix’s Neo went from plausible badass to absolute badass, Wesley went from complete loser (and in no way badass) to absolute badass, which is a much cooler kind of transition (it isn’t that sort of She’s All That makeover in which the dorky girl is still very hot anyway). As a kind of side note, I thought a few times during this movie how McAvoy could make a really good Spider-Man/Peter Parker. But anyway...

Angelina Jolie was smokin hot in this movie. And the other visual stimuli were great, as well. The special effects were top notch, and while bullet time is no new thing anymore, it was used creatively and well for the moments it was there. The cinematography otherwise was also done nicely, making it appeasing to the eye and rather unique.

If there was anything of note that I thought could have been better, it would be reasonings behind transitional moments of character. For instance, Wesley is totally against The Fraternity, and after noticing a bump in his bank account, he suddenly gets a boost in self-confidence and decides to join in (though I loved the office scene that shows his new-found self-confidence. The end part with the… well… ‘Keyboard moment’… got applause in my audience). And then the next time he gets another boost of confidence just seemed a bit off to me. It just felt like there could have been more to some of those types of scenes. In other words, Wesley’s character development was slightly shaky a few times near the beginning. But I quickly just shrugged it off.

Otherwise, I’m not sure what else to say about the movie. It was super fun action, really funny, great to look at (in more ways than one), and although the ending was predictable (down to the final moments), it was still done rather well. I’d definitely see it again.

A Keanu 'Whoa'

(P.S. Somewhat ironic rating, huh? Oh, and hooray! For the first time, my P.E.S.T. ratings have both been spot-on).