Lara Croft: Tomb Raider

Along with Milla Jovovich from the previous blog post, there is another female actress who has brought block buster films to Hollywood, Angelina Jolie. Probably one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood, Angelina Jolie has shown her feisty and seductive personality throughout her action movies such as Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Would it shock you if these “harmless” movies offend women with female stereotypes?

One of Jolie’s debut films in the action film industry was the Tomb Raiders series. The movie series were influenced by the release of Tomb Raider game in 1996. Since its release, there have been numerous games, comic series, and movie franchises.

Angelina Jolie, in my opinion, was a fantastic person to play as Lara Croft. First, the actual game character looks like Angelina Jolie. Second, Jolie was able to successfully portray the similar action scenes from the game. Third, Jolie was also able to say her lines in dialogues exactly like Lara Croft giving audience the satisfaction to the question: “What would Lara Croft be like if she was a real person?”

Both movie series, starring Angelina Jolie as protagonist Lara Croft, was a huge success which profited double of their original budgets. Jolie’s action scenes and her distinct character have brought joy and amusement to viewers. However, similar to Resident Evil and Ultraviolet, both Tomb Raider series was unable to hide female stereotypes and their male gaze components.

Just like Resident Evil and Ultraviolet, the biggest male gaze component of the movie was clothing. Tights..Tights? In adventure movie, you would wear tights? If tights were best clothing for action adventure, why weren’t U.S. marines wearing tights during the war against terrorists over the past years? If I was a U.S. general, I would make wearing tights in a battle field to be mandatory because that would “enhance” soldiers’ movements.

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, along with Resident Evil, was a movie which brought people well-portrayed realistic view of a game environment. However, it was unable to avoid showing male gaze components such as bodily appearances.