We have to break down the title into three parts just to get the idea: Angelina Jolie is Lara Croft. She's not really a grave robber, but does enjoy the rich life of searching for artifacts, thus the "tomb raider," and the film involves her finding and protecting Pandora's Box (I don't mean my brother's cat's litter area). This happens in Africa, where many believe life began.

A summer action flick needs simplicity. Maybe all this thinking is why the movie bombed in its first weekend (at least for a big budget late-July release). Either way, the movie was fourth in its debut, behind Spy Kids 3-D and movies that have been out longer, Pirates of the Caribbean and Bad Boys 2. Ouch. Tomb Raider 2 made less than half the opening take of the original. Double ouch.

I'm not a gamer who gets off on a computer version of Croft; I just wanted a popcorn flick, not a feminine version of Indiana Jones. So was it really that bad? Nah. But it was a run-of-the-mill summer action movie in the same forgettable vein as Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

I just wanted cool stunts, pretty locales and somewhat believable yet amazing action sequences, such as were seen in the aforementioned flicks in the previous paragraph. While Tomb Raider had superior action, the movie wasn't any more memorable than the majority of this summer's fare.

The plot revolving around Pandora's Box was, of course, preposterous. You don't even have to open Pandora's Box for all heck to break loose. Rockaby, baby, taken literally, down will go the cradle of life, Angie and all.

But I may be a bit biased. The entire film I kept comparing to the Indiana Jones franchise, because of similarities ranging from the almighty power of the Box/Ark of the Covenant and a trek through canyons that harkens back to Last Crusade. I almost expected an ancient knight to challenge Jolie before she could find Pandora's Box, and then have to fight off Nazis. The bad guy came very close to clearing away his troops and challenging Jolie to "blow it up."

My bias is that Indiana Jones used religious artifacts with a belief in Christian theology. Tomb Raider is entirely secular, telling us that the Box gave life on Earth. Yeah, sure.

The love interest, Gerard Butler, is shaped from the mold of "is he in it with her or against her." That's what happens, Angie, when you get it on with a dodgy renegade. I'm pretty sure this was taught in all the finest finishing schools.

The bad guy, Ciar�n Hinds, is the eeevil Nobel Prize-winning scientist who develops biological weapons and seeks to control the Box for his evildoing purposes. He's not to be trifled with, but one should always be wary of where to trifle and with whom.

Several moments left me rolling my eyes, even pushing aside my understanding of physics. I can accept the supernatural mojo, but we're supposed to believe that this great Lunar Temple of Alexander the Great has existed 3,000 underwater (yet there's dry air within as it sits under the ocean), but goes kaput only when Jolie enters. Fine.

But we're supposed to believe that climbers have hiked Kilimanjaro for decades in Africa, yet no one ever noticed this canyon up it that ends in a shadowy, petrified forest full of crazy monkeys on top? I'm pretty sure National Geographic would have noted this by now. Maybe they have, but Americans can't get past the naked breasts of the local bushwomen on the cover.

In other perhaps unwarranted comparisons with Indiana Jones, at least you had the idea that Indiana was fallible through all the action, and he had actual human limitations to his abilities. Jolie seems to be a superhero and you never doubt that she'll evade dozens of bullets, swing from buildings like a chimp and get away. The shark scene ruined it for me entirely too soon.

I did get one wish, since we are taken to many lovely locations, from Greece to Hong Kong to China to Africa. Even the characters are generally favorable, even though I'm not a big Jolie fan (she's not exactly gifted with a colorful personality).

The action for the most part was worth a matinee except for the lame final fifteen minutes. I'm not sure the purpose of the slow-motion shots, since they didn't enhance the moment and/or the suspense, and don't even showcase Jolie's ... um, characteristics.

In the end, this might seem a tad surprising, but I'm actually going to recommend this movie as a decently entertaining summer movie.