Directed by Jan de Bont.  Written by Dean Georgaris.

If you sat through the original, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and enjoyed yourself, then you have problems.  It was idiotic, loud, surprisingly dull and showed what summer action is not supposed to be.  These films are all based of the Tomb Raider series of video games, which were fun but dont scream movie adaptation.  There is nothing really positive to say about the original, the special effects, acting, writing and direction were all god awful.  The ONLY positive thing to say about it was Angelina Jolie, even though she was pretty bad in it, who showed promise.

Now the sequel is released and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life is actually quite a bit better.   You can tell by the improvements in the quality of the movie that everybody involved with the first one felt pretty much the same level of disdain for it.  Neither the director nor screenwriters from the original returned; they were replaced by director Jan de Bont, who directed Speed and Twister, and a vastly improved script.  Not saying that everything has improved, I would still say that the special effects for a huge summer blockbuster sequel should be a lot better.  They still look obviously fake and you might wonder why the producers improved the creative side but didnt improve the computer-generated effects.

This time around Lara (Jolie) is looking for Pandoras Box, that has the ability to destroy most of mankind.  She globe trots from Greece, Britain, Kazakhstan, China, and Eastern Africa and it all so seams so logical (just kidding).  After M-I6 asks Laras help in retrieving Pandoras box before the evil biochemist/terrorist Jonathan Reiss (Ciarán Hinds) gets it and tries to, of course, take over the world.  She then enlists the help of her old flame and traitor to Britain Terry Sheridan (Gerard Butler).  The movie is filled with such preposterousness that its actually pretty enjoyable.

We learn more about Lara this time, the writing and plot structure are improved so much over the original that you almost forget that the basis for the sequel is a mindless videogame. Not that anything that happens is unpredictable or rational, but if you use logic in a movie like this then you are over thinking your movie going experience a little too much. The movie has problems and should have been a lot better but if you want to have a little mindless fun at the multiplex, then just check it out.  But if youre looking for deep and thoughtful, which I doubt you would be if you wanted to see this movie, then check out Seabiscuit.