I’m not sure how or why this movie was made. Even worse than its weak predecessor, the film is clearly aimed at adolescent males who will think Angelina Jolie is hot, that Gerard Butler is cool, and that all the action sequences amount to a good movie.

In this episode, Lara Croft (Angelina Jolie) is looking for Pandora’s Box, where all life began. She wants to find it before the bad guys (Ciarán Hinds) do, because apparently the box holds the power to destroy all the life it created. And the bad guys want to destroy the world for some reason.

Tomb Raider 2 is mildly fun visually; we get action sequences under water, high in the sky, in high tech computer labs, in eastern China and in African caves. Former British Military officer and now prison inmate Terry Sheridan (Gerard Butler) is brought along because he knows all the shortcuts and back roads in China and because he’s really cool.

Tomb Raider 2 wants to be Indiana Jones, but it fails on every level; it’s not nearly as exciting, as funny or as engaging in any real way. Tomb Raider 2 glides from major climax to major climax in such a way that it’s all perpetually anti-climactic.

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