It’s time for a few more movie reviews!

TOMB RAIDER – I had SUCH a good time at this movie. Angelina Jolie really IS Lara Croft as far as I’m concerned – she kicks butt AND has a wit cleverly understated with her uppercrust British accent. *grin* Don’t go see this movie if you’re a stickler for left-brained archaeological ‘fact’, but go if you love archaeological speculation, myths about powerful artifacts and powerful groups (Illuminati), and the grander, expansive perspective of the adventure of life. The acting fit well, the ruins/sets were spectacular, and the plot and character development carried the movie along nicely. It was even rather funny in the right parts. Don’t go if you expect everything to obey the law of gravity like it should, including everything about Lara (heh heh) and yes, she wore a thin t-shirt in the arctic – it’s silly, but the whole movie is silly, and it just works. Myself, I have an utter fascination with old ruins and mystical places, so this was right up my alley. And I liked the actual GAME as well – LOL.

ATLANTIS – Run! Hide your money! Disney doesn’t deserve it. (Where do I begin?) One personal problem I had was that I couldn’t see the main character as anyone but Michael J. Fox because of the voice. But it didn’t really matter, because the characters didn’t really offer any contrasting development or flavor of their own anyway, so there was no conflict… there was no vitality either. All of the characters were cliche’ and the list of nationalities read like a politically correct U.N. roster. The plot had planet sized holes in it, I didn’t CARE about any of the characters, and we flashed from scene to scene, action all over the place, but with no building of energy or climax. The animated movements of the characters (particularly facial expressions, shoulder, and hip movements) were jerky, overt, exaggerated, and in poorly drawn perspective most of the time. (Do animators think that it makes a character seem more REAL if their clothes keep falling off their shoulders? Huh?) Atlantis itself might have been anywhere – little details were probably borrowed from Edgar Cayce but it could have been another planet entirely for all that it mattered. Plot devices were a matter of convenience and not cohesiveness. I kept waiting for SOMETHING relevant to happen and it never did. The animation of the ‘sets’ and ‘special effects’ WAS cool, yes, but no more so than anything else you’ve seen recently. Lara Croft wearing a thin t-shirt in the arctic made more sense than anything in this movie! *grin* Okay, I’ll stop here. Gotta go write Disney now and ask for my hour and a half back. LOL. (And I ENJOYED past (modern) Disney flicks like Aladdin, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, even Hercules… *sigh*)