HOLLYWOOD RAIDER.

• Author: Tauber, Chris
• Position: Motion picture industry - Brief Article

Will Lara Croft break the video-game movie jinx?

Trying to translate a video game into a movie has virtually guaranteed "game over." Yet Tomb Raider is about to jump from the PlayStation to the multiplex on June 15, where it will either bomb big, true to form, or score big.

It's a risk after the recent wave of game-to-film disasters, from 1993's Super Mario Bros. to 1999's Wing Commander. "Hollywood needs to remember that if it's taking away the dynamic interactivity that's at the heart of any good video game, it needs to replace it with something that films can do better than games can," says Steven Poole, author of Trigger Happy: Video Games and the Future of Entertainment. "And that something should usually be an involving story, and a more human, emotive approach to the subject matter."

A flat Mario didn't have it, but Tomb Raider's Lara Croft seems dazzlingly dimensional, at least in the hype leading up to the release. The $100 million film promises to further develop a heroine inspired by other movies--James Bond meets Indiana Jones meets, well, star Angelina Jolie. "The studio did not try to just replicate the game...