orbit

saw Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life this weekend.

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(the following probably contains spoilers. be warned.)

i <3 Mme. Jolie. <3 <3 <3. and i <3ed the first movie quite a bit---besides the fact that it's her, the movie itself was (i thought) quite good for a video game movie. honestly. and i still am incredibly impressed with the amount of work that Mme. Jolie herself put into learning how to do things so that she could do most of her own stunts. i cannot stress enough how much i love it when people do stuff like that. it's just so cool. *^^*

the second movie was at least as good (if not better) than the first. i'm starting to lean towards it being better, mostly because the pacing seemed a little better this time around. and although i had my suspension of disbelief switch firmly turned on in preparation, there were still moments (the unlocking of the orb in the apartment in Taipei, ahem) where i was left going, "...and they'd have had the means of doing this back then? O.O;;" but overall, much fun was had.

the chara of Terry Sheridan was okay. more fun than i'd have expected, but they didn't seem to entirely gel at first. worked really well towards the end, though. and Jonathan Reiss (Ciar?n Hinds) looked (at first glance, not looking v. closely) a bit much like...Hans Gruber from Die Hard. just a teeny bit. (Spaz thought he looked like someone too, although i don't think that's who and he'll probably say he thinks i'm on a lot of crack once he reads this. XDXD) [now there's a concept. Jolie and Rickman in the same movie. as nemeses. 'scuse me while my entire body's blood supply rushes out my nose with absolutely no warning. *.*;;;;]

Spaz was particularly taken with the way the nighttime scenes in Kilamanjaro were shot. at one point (and neither of us talks during movies, as a general rule), he leaned over and excitedly whispered, "...THAT'S what night should look like on film!" and it did look quite convincing.

CG work was not too shabby, which was a relief---i can't say how many times lately i've seen things where people have obviously been exercising their new toys and really shouldn't have; the results have just looked like utter crap. and things like Starship Troopers (both the Paul Verhoeven movie and also Roughnecks: the Starship Troopers Chronicles animated TV series) have proven solidly that it CAN be done and done WELL---regardless of what else you might think of either. so that was nice, too. i think that a large part of the particular scene i'm thinking of's looking so good is that it took place at night, but i'm not complaining at all. they did what they had to to make it look less flashily unbelievable, and i appreciate that.

if you're someone who'd enjoy this, and you haven't seen it yet, i heartily advise going.

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3

</jolie fangirling>