Sequel Baiting #4 - Lara Croft - Tomb Raider vs The Cradle of Life

Tomb Raider and Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life are movies based on the Tomb Raider video games, both were critically panned but the second one wasn’t profitable enough for the film venture to continue and despite a new actor being announced when Tomb Raider: Underworld came out, no Tomb Raider movie has arrived yet, although a trailer was released for one 2 weeks ago (and in my opinion it just looks like a rehash of the reboot game's story) But which is better. Let’s take a gander. 

And I’m going to change the format a little. Instead of giving each movie a point score out of 5, I’ll grant the better of the two one point. There is a single bonus point available for if one movie is significantly better in a particular category.

Story

The Tomb Raider Legend, Anniversary and Underworld games, the ones I grew up with, all have strong stories, although of course littered with the ridiculous. How do these movies hold up?

Tomb Raider revolves around Lara completing a task left for her by her father. It’s approaching the time of a special planetary alignment (because of course) and she must seek out the two pieces of the triangle of Light before the Illuminati, joined by her old comrade Alex West and with a taskforce lead by Manfred Powell, manage to use it for their own purposes.

Tomb Raider cradle of Light revolves around Lara seeking out an orb which contains a map to Pandora’s box, it’s stolen from her early on and MI6 are worried about the Chinese gang who stole it selling it onto businessman Ivan Reiss. It’s up to Lara and an old love-interest turned traitor, Terry Sheriden to recover the orb and find Pandora’s box before Reiss uses it for his own purposes.

Both have a major issue, Lara’s attempts to uncover the truth only help the villain, on both occasions she could’ve acted in the best interests of the planet and destroy the vital component she had. This is an issue that I find particularly aggravating, but I’m going to give a pass to this on the second film given that Reiss did have her friends at gunpoint. However, there is a little more to the first one, despite it’s shorter run-time. It’s a close one, but the point goes to the first movie.

Tomb Raider 1

Cradle of Life 0

Character and development

Outside of the reboot, the Lara Croft games aren’t exactly well known for this, but it’s still something that should happen.

Lara is the focus of character development in both movies. The first one explored her feelings over her father’s death and one last mission, there is some emotion to this and provides some nice character moments. There’s also her relationship to Alex West which isn’t exactly a trusting one. Lord Croft is a bit of an idiot, he had a key component in the quest to find the pieces of the triangle of light and elected not to destroy it. Powell makes Lara an interesting offer near the end for her half of the triangle, the opportunity to bring back her father. Of course, it turns out he murdered him in the first place but again, it’s good character motivation. Bryce and Hillary provide some nice levity and technical support, but aside from Hillary wanting Lara to wear a dress (???) there’s really little to them in this movie. Powell’s motivation isn’t exactly clear, other than him not believing in the cause of the illuminati.

In Cradle of Life, almost all the character development is focused around the relationship between Lara and Terry and am I the only one who’s a little insulted? I don’t recall the games, even the ones in the reboot, focusing particularly around a love interest, why do both of these movies? Anyway, the relationship is one of mistrust but fatal attraction, a much stronger connection than that to Alex West (never mentioned in the movie by the way) Terry isn’t really an interesting character in his own right, however. His reasoning for turning traitor are actually some of the weakest. Speaking of weak, Reiss’ plan is to spread the disease so people will pay for the cure. I swear this plot-line is everywhere! He does have a bad-ass opening where he kills a traitor but it’s as far as it goes. Hillary and Bryce have nothing to do for most of the movie and only have a moment’s comic relief near the end.

Sadly, there’s no question, the point goes to the first movie.

Tomb Raider 2

Cradle of Life 0

Environments

Tomb Raider games involve a lot of travelling, from jungle expanses to frozen wastelands. This is sadly something they toned down on in the reboot in favour of more “open world” exploration but I digress.

The First Movie sets the bar rather low in my opinion, there are a few locations but very few nice set-pieces. The two temples in the movie are distinct and have varied environments but outside of Croft Manor, or really just the landing of Croft Manor, there isn’t much more to see here. The jungle temple looked good with some clearly Buddhist references and some nice jungle around it. The Ice Temple in comparison was kinda boring, the moving structure was interesting but the environment itself less so.

Cradle of Light has a lot more variation in environments. Very little time is spent at Croft manor in favour of being largely in China (guess they were still doing that then too), where we get to see mountain environments, big cities and we get to see a lot of the landscape during the gliding bit. Then we get some dead forest in Africa to finish off and the caverns for the temple of light where simple camera tricks and the ignorance of gravity make an interesting landscape. However some of the CG used for backgrounds during certain scenes have no held up well at all.

Despite this, I think Cradle of Light is the superior of the two here, and by enough of a margin that I award the bonus point. 2 points to Cradle of Life

Tomb Raider 2

Cradle of Light 2

Action

Lara Croft is a well-known badass when it comes to fighting. She’s usually a shooter but her agility and physical skills make her a force to be reckoned with in a fist fight.

The first movie starts with a training simulation. Riveting. But we quickly move on, the invasion of the manor early on allows her to showcase her ingenuity as she starts with only some bungee cables and has to arm herself before gaining access to her guns. Although the bad guys do win here, it’s a decent showcase for her skills. But, to add variety the next battle is against stone guardians and… it’s not all that compelling, the way the big guy is defeated is foreshadowed throughout the fight but beyond that it’s just shooting. The final fight between Lara and Powell is over-edited but engaging.

There are quite a few shootouts in Cradle of Light. But Lara punches a shark, a pretty terrible looking one too. Lara shows off her staff skills as a bit of easy foreshadowing for her fight against Chen Lo. There isn’t really a standout fight with the shadow creatures that protect the cradle, but there is a sense of atmosphere as the extras are picked off by a force too powerful to gun down. The final fight between Lara and Reiss is a good one in my opinion, and there’s not much of a showdown with Terry as they go to the generic 'He draws gun and noise is heard but it turns out Lara drew first' trick.  Both movies have call-backs to the platforming and athletics from the original games, which I credit them for.

There is a lot more action in Cradle of Light but quantity does not necessarily equal quality. The fight in the manor is my personal favourite from the two movies and whilst the effects don’t stand up it is good to have some enemy variety, when it comes to shootouts. It’s a tight race, but the point goes to the first movie.

Tomb Raider 3

Cradle of Light 2

Acting

Angelina Jolie puts in solid performances for both times as Lara Croft. It’s unfortunate that she backed out of doing any further sequels, not that the second film was profitable enough anyway. The rest of the cast in the first movie are… serviceable, average at best. No-one really stands out in the acting department but then, very few are given anything all that memorable to chew on. Daniel Craig is fine as Alex West; Noah Taylor and Chris Barrie are fine as Bryce and Hillary. Jon Voigt makes a good Richard Croft, Ian Glenn is fine as Manfred Powell. There’s really not much I can say.

The second movie, it’s much the same story. I can say that I enjoyed Gerard Butler as Terry Sheriden, and Simon Yam as Chen Lo was entertaining. Cieran Hinds does fine as Jonathan Reiss and Noah Taylor and Chris Barrie are fine as Bryce and Hillary again, despite their reduced roles.

I guess, just for Gerard Butler, I have to give it to the Cradle of Light, but know it’s a very close race

Tomb Raider 3

Cradle of Light 3

So it comes down to one final category.

Legends/Mystery

All treasures have a story behind them, are these good ones?

The Triangle of Light in the first movie is made of a space meteor. Good start there. It landed 5000 years ago during the last planetary alignment and because the plot says it can, it has the power to control time. But the ancients found the weapon too powerful and split it in half, and put the pieces on opposite ends of the globe. And left a clock thing that serves as a map to them as well as the final component because of reasons. It’s not a great story and a generic as hell name but at least it is something original, pity the enemies are the Illumaniti, anything but original.

The Pandora’s box is the treasure in the second movie, and the legends are already well known, but Lara adds to them. Explorers in Egypt found the source of Life, the Cradle of Light but when they opened it, all it remained was anti-life, plague and some sh*t about Natural Balance. Alexander the great’s crew next found the box and it nearly wiped them out, resulting in the box being returned to the temple of light and the only map being hidden in Alexander’s treasure room. Again, it seems odd that a treasure so dangerous had a map created so someone could find it. I can’t give it the originality credit I gave the first one, although it does incorporate some historical reference as opposed to being an item from space.

Honestly, this is enough tough call. For me though, I found the triangle of light marginally more interesting, point to the first movie

Tomb Raider 4

Cradle of Light 3

Conclusion

When I gave my original thoughts on these movies, I said I preferred the second, how things have changed. Whilst there are some better elements to the second, it’s over-reliance on a boring love-interest plot-line and the generic treasure give the first movie a decisive edge.