Lady Croft lives in a castle that makes Buckingham Palace look like a summer cottage.
  
Crafty Croft wields knives, guns, even while maneuvering a slick motorcycle. Director Simon West gives her the look and feel of Batman . She's seldom scared, even when challenged by many well-armed bad guys or computer-generated attack-statues. More often, she's spiritual in her practice or melancholy while daydreaming about her late father whose journals lay out her purpose in this film. Coincidentally, her father is played by John Voight ...

slick rolling shots (always with an eye for spectacle) provide the film with plenty of calming scenery. In fact, you'll be taken to the ends of the Earth: London, Venice, Cambodia, Iceland. You'll paddle through a floating market in Asia and dogsled across a snowy "dead-zone" near the Arctic Circle.
 
As the planets align (only once every 5000 years), a secret society seeks to re-unite the two halves of the hidden triangle of time ... giving them the power of god. Unless Lara Croft can connect the pieces of the puzzle first, the world will not likely survive the inevitable abuse of this power. In short, our hero must "save time."

fact, aside from some non-threatening cg-statue foes, most of the visual conflict is exciting, creative and well captured on film.
 
The dialogue stumbles a bit, especially at the outset and finish, climaxing with schmaltzy near-dribble. The arch bad guy, Powell, however, more often than not articulates fairly well, "It's a pleasurable torment. My ignorance amuses me." Fortunately, the director punctuates the film with silence.
 
As is the case with superheroes, their archenemies all too often fail to just shoot

steal from the picture's otherwise deserved intensity.
      
All in all, "Tomb Raider" flaunts some prime choice art direction, set design and cinematography. For the most part, this respectable cast tells the story well, feeding bite-sized clues to the audience instead of biting our heads off with exposition.