8 Awful Video Game Movies That Got The Most Important Thing Right

3. Tomb Raider - The Glorious Set Pieces

Tomb Raider
Paramount Pictures

Labelling 2001’s Lara Croft: Tomb Raider as awful may be a tad harsh, but this movie was far from being anywhere close to good. Then, again, box office dollars were strong enough that a sequel would, of course, happen.

In that first Tomb Raider movie, audiences were given a minuscule plot, some ludicrous and cheesy moments, and a Daniel Craig performance that we bet most of you had forgotten all about. But in amongst the lesser elements of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, some of the major bright spots were the set pieces and action sequences utilised in the movie.

The scale and imagination of some of the film's more energy-pumping scenes felt genuinely as if they’d been pulled directly from the Tomb Raider source material, and served to give franchise fans the sort of intense and clever action that they’d become familiar with throughout the gaming franchise itself.

Oh, and one other thing that Tomb Raider clearly got right for the horned-up teenage gamers of the time, was the casting of Angelina Jolie and the fact that the film largely kept Lara true to her worryingly skimpy gaming outfits.

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Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.