Lara Croft - Tomb Raider

The transfer of successful video games to the big screen has a less than glorious track record, from Super Mario Bros to Street Fighter. Hopes were high for this Tomb Raider adaptation, however, partly because Lara Croft was a natural action-movie icon and partly because the game was known for decent narrative. What a shame then that it's such a huge dud. Angelina Jolie makes a credible enough Lara — athletic, somewhat top-heavy, and with an English accent borrowed from Liz Hurley (rumoured to be an early contender for the role). But not only is the story unsatisfying — a two-act yarn about finding two halves of an artefact in Cambodia and Siberia — the direction from Simon West (so good at the helm of Con Air) does nothing to whip up any momentum as Lara joins forces with the apparent villains (led by Iain Glen) and jumps about a bit, mostly in the dark. The Indiana Jones series did this tomb-raiding schtick so much better; and a few monkey statues coming to life are short change after the recent full-on Mummy films. In short, it's boring. A half-baked subplot involving Lara's dead father (played by Jolie's dad Jon Voight) does little to involve the viewer and fans of the game will be itching to get back to their consoles.

Trivial nonsense, a worthless farrago of stupefying boredom, based on best-selling videogames; Jolie, though, does seem like the creation of a masculine cyber-fantasy.