Word: tomb
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From the release of the first Tomb Raider in 1996, the game's star, Lara, was designed to be different. In a videogame scene filled at the time with Uzi-toting brain-dead lugs, here was a nimble and refined British heroine who oozed sex. Her style was a wonderful collision of opposites: preppy pigtail and glasses with pistol-packing twin thigh holsters. Male video gamers were hooked. And for the first time, so were their wives and girlfriends. "I think [Croft] is a new definition of celebrity," says Tomb Raider producer Lloyd Levin. "Christina and Britney have massive popularity...
Probably no human could live up to the sexy-tough-girl fantasies that Croft has inspired, but Jolie--with her uplifting Triumph bra and cool intensity--may well satisfy the most hard-core Tomb Raider fans. "I didn't want a bimbo movie all about tight costumes," says Simon. "With Angie, I can get an Oscar-winning performance in every scene, but she'll still satisfy the lust in Lara that everyone sees...She's sexy, and I think a very slight tomboy. People are also now comfortable with female action leads. People can have their cake...
...Oscar-winning actress admits she had her own doubts about slipping into Croft's boots. She had never played Tomb Raider and knew the character only from watching her first husband, Jonny Lee Miller, play the game. Says Jolie: "Like every woman, I'd go, 'Ugh, her! Oh, boy, there's a woman who makes me look average and feel inferior.' I hated her. I'm praying now I can live...
...this case, the two components of the Clock of Ages, a dusty device that tracks the alignment of the planets and may help solve the mystery of her father's death. But there are changes in the way Croft goes about her business. Far from being a full-time tomb raider, she now has a day job as a Pulitzer prizewinning photojournalist (why or when she has time to do this is unclear, but cameras and prints are scattered around Croft Manor). And rather than spending the whole movie in the game's traditional green tank top and khaki shorts...
...there's any development that will rub Tomb Raider fans the wrong way, it's Croft's newfound pals. In the game, she operates alone. Now, perhaps, Croft has too many sidekicks. The spectral presence of her father (played by Jolie's real-life dad, Jon Voight) is a cute addition, but we could probably do without the cockney comic relief called Bryce (played by Noah Taylor, the teenage David Helfgott in Shine). At any rate, Jolie feels right at home in her strange new world. "All the reasons I'm right for this movie are all the reasons...