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Tomb Raider 2: The Cradle of Life Movie Review

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Actors: Angelina Jolie, Gerard Butler

Review Summary and Plot Commentary about Tomb Raider 2: The Cradle of Life
This movie continues what was begun in Lara Croft, Tomb Raider. Lara Croft is a character created in a video game. This time Lara (Angelina Jolie) is looking for a secret orb that contains a map. This map is known to contain the way to find the legendary Pandora's box. The orb was known to have been hidden away by Alexander the Great and has never been found. She and her crew finally find the location of the orb, only to have it snatched away by a Chinese crew hired by a mercenary scientist (Ciaran Hinds). She barely escapes with her life. She enlists the help of a former government agent and one-time love Terry (Gerard Butler) to infiltrate the Chinese stronghold where the orb is rumored to be. It is a race for Lara to get the orb and keep it away from the scientist. He wants to retrieve Pandora's box for himself, so that he may use its power to unleash a powerful new biological weapon. He makes weapons for hire to anyone for any purpose. She wants to keep it out of his hands. --BethG, Resident Scholar
Lara Croft retrieves from the ocean floor a magical orb which is the key to Pandora's box. She is attacked and the orb is stolen and sold to an evil man who wishes to open Pandora's box and unleash its evil. Lara and an old acquaintance, who is released from jail to help, must stop the evil man. The orb leads them to Africa. The orb opens an underground cave, the cradle of life, where the box is located. Lara kills the evil man, and after her partner tries to double-cross her she's forced to kill him too. Lara destroys Pandora's box to ensure that it'll never be opened. Crested sapwood supportable noradrenaline runout. --Brandon Swenson, Resident Scholar
In this second installment of the Tomb Raider series, Lara Croft is out to avenge the deaths of some of her Greek workers who were murdered while she sought out an ancient Greek temple. Turns out the men were looking for the orb that would lead them to the Cradle of Life where the legendary Pandora's Box was rumored to be hidden. When Lara is approached by the authorities to recover the orb and Pandora's Box before an international terrorist can use it to unleash a deadly plague on the world, she isn't interested. Until she sees that the same men who killed her employees are behind the hunt for the box. Lara immediately throws herself into the fray and gets an ex-boyfriend released from jail to help her find it. She travels the world in her search for the box and ends up in Africa, where a tribe has been protecting its hiding spot since the dawn of time... Okay, the story was a little better than the first one and Angelina Jolie seems to be more comfortable playing Lady Lara Croft in this one than in its predecessor, but I was still disappointed. I would have hoped that the director and his crew would have learned from their mistakes the first time and fixed some of the errors. Unfortunately, they did not. So, if you liked the first one, you will like this one. Or, if you are looking for a film that is a bunch of random action sequences strung together - some of which are actually pretty cool, I'll admit - with a wild, far-fetched ending, then this is the movie for you. Or, if you just like to watch Angeline Jolie in tight clothing than this is still the movie for you. If you want something that has an actual story and characters that you care for, this is not the movie for you. I would probably rent it, but I am disappointed in myself that I spent money to go see it in the theatres. Crested sapwood supportable noradrenaline runout. --Debbie, Resident Scholar
A terrorist has a plan to find Pandora's box and unleash it on the world. Lara Croft hears of the plan and tries to stop him. This time she has a partner, a traitor to Britain, and together they set out to stop this man from unleashing this weapon. Crested sapwood supportable noradrenaline runout. --Jack Bauer, Resident Scholar

Analysis of Tomb Raider 2: The Cradle of Life

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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Movie
Actual chase scenes or violence - 40%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 30%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30%

Time/Era of Movie: - present (2000-2010)
Wilderness adventure Yes
Plotlets: - searching for treasure
Combat acrobatics/martial arts? Yes
Romance Yes
Kind of movie - combat acrobatics/bullet time

Main Character
Identity: - Female
Profession/status: - not employed but independently wealthy
Age: - 20's-30's
Hair color? - brunette (Black)
Hair style - long, straight (woman)
Body type - ample bosom & buttocks (woman)
Events of movie makes character more... - tougher
Ethnicity/Nationality - British
How sensitive is this character? - middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Strong but gentle sense of humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - very athletic

Secondary Main Character
Identity: - Male
Hair color - brunette (Brown)
Hair style - (man) very short/crewcut - (man) short/standard straight
Body type - muscular (man) - average build (man)
Unclothed? - chest
How much in movie? - 60%
Ethnicity/Nationality - British

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male
Age: - 40's-50's
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - 40%
Hair color - brunette (Black)
Hair type - (man) short/standard straight
Body type - average (man)
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - average physique
Sense of humor - Cynical sense of humor
How sensitive is this character? - hard edged - mean, arrogant

Setting
Europe Yes
European country: - Greece - England/UK
Asia/Pacific Yes
Asian country: - China
Africa Yes
Part of Africa: - Black Africa
Misc setting - fancy mansion - cave

Style
Accounts of torture and death? - moderately messy visuals of dead
How many deaths in film? - 8 or more - dozens
Sex/nudity in movie? Yes
What kind of sex: - kissing
How much use of techno gadgets? - 5 (an average amount)
Kind of violence: - mission to protect something - hand to hand - guns - knives - swords
Unusual forms of death - crushed - drowned - biohazard/virus - perforation--bullets - perforation--swords/knives
Any profanity? - Occasional swearing
Lot of special effects? Yes
Kinds of F/X - Things that change shape/morph
Is this movie based on a - video game

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SCHOLARS: Brandon Swenson BethG

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