Cyber highways on the big screen

In its attempt to draw audiences back into cinema halls, Hollywood has been eyeing the phenomenal popularity of video games. ANAND PARTHASARATHY examines the efforts to recreate the pull of the PC and the games kiosk - typified by the latest example of evolving movie models - ``Tomb Raider''.

WHEN ``TIME Digital'', the online edition of the U.S. based news weekly, recently published a list of 50 American ``cyber- elites'', it contained predictable names like Microsoft's software mughal Bill Gates, chip-giant Intel's founder-chairman Andy Grove and that pioneer of digital cinema, George Lucas (``Star Wars''). Also making the list, amongst these flesh-and- blood technology pioneers, was a `virtual' cyberian. She was Lara Croft, archeologist, otherwise known as the ``Tomb Raider'', protagonist of one of the most popular video games, on PCs; on games machines like the Sony Play Station and in thousands of games kiosks across the world. Together, they have generated $500 million in global sales in the five years since her debut.

A Hollywood movie industry, desperately trying to persuade audiences away from their TV-and-cable-fed entertainment mix, back into cinema theatres, was unlikely to have overlooked the phenomenal pulling power and the competition, posed by video games, especially for younger audiences.

On that hoary American business principle, ``If you can't fight 'em, join 'em'', the movie industry has been trying to steal some of the thunder (and the dollars) from the burgeoning games industry, by buying up the big screen franchises of the more popular video game characters (many of them already recycled in TV programmes and comic books).

The trend began eight years ago when ``Super Mario Brothers''- based on the video game for the Nintendo machine featuring the New York plumber-siblings of the title - was brought to the wide screen in an effects-heavy, but otherwise forgettable version. There have been other cinematic forays into the virtual world of games - like the 1995 film ``Mortal Kombat'', featuring Christopher Lambert as the martial arts maestro of the computer kiosk. But the convergence of cinema and video games models, has never been attempted on the scale (and with the budget and hype) of this week's India-wide release: ``Lara Croft: Tomb Raider''.

In the past, such cross-migration of characters has been greeted indulgently by film critics with phrases like: ``What more can you expect from a film based on a video game!'' The new, silver screen version of ``Tomb Raider'', will not command such kindness - because both budget and talent-wise, it is a ``big'' Hollywood product, typical of the new millennium: intrigue and drama; exotic locations ranging from Iceland (doubling for Siberia) to the monuments of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, serving as the backdrop for breathless in-your-face action; a seamless fusion of hi-tech computer graphics with live, wire-based stunts a la John Woo; and a cast headed by an up-and-coming Oscar-winning actress in an athletic new avatar.

``Lara (of the video games) is strong, and extremely attractive, appealing to men and boys. But because she is tough, forthright and knows her own mind, she is also an icon to women and girls.. she is a perfect role model, totally inspirational'', says the film's director Simon West who earlier anchored the frenetic action of ``Con Air'' the aerial hijack drama that starred Nicholas Cage and John Malkovich.

See how the makers have covered all bases in the film's audience profile - men, boys, women, girls: an exotic time passer for bored kids is thus being re-invented as ``popcorn fare'' for all ages.

To achieve this masala mix of genres, the story writers have conjured up a plot that pits the blue-blooded British archeologist Lara Croft against the Illumanati, a group of global baddies who are after an ancient artefact, the Triangle of Light, known to ``give its possessor the power of God''. The trinket can only be grabbed once in 5,000 years, during a rare planetary alignment. But not if Lara Croft has any say in the matter.

Don't be misled by her constant smirk: played by Angelina Jolie, one of the new breed of risk-taking, no-nonsense female stars, with a Best Supporting Actress already on her mantelpiece (for the 1999 feminist film, ``Girl, Interrupted''), Croft may look chic in her form fitting outfit - but she fires streams of bullets from her oversized hand guns, slides across the ice in a dog sled and bungee-jumps in pursuit of the bad guys.

``This has been the hardest job of my life. It really tested me'', says Ms. Jolie, ``It was both fun and hard work to jump into Lara's world - and her skin - a bit''. And driving home the feminist message that Hollywood keeps recycling in films like ``Charlie's Angels'', and ``Erin Brockovich'', she adds: ``If she (Lara) competes with a guy and wins, it's not because she is a girl but because she is a better fighter''.

Since winning her Oscar, Jolie has acted in the Nicolas Cage starrer ``Gone in Sixty Seconds'' and more recently in a steamy 19th century thriller ``Original Sin'' where she plays an American mail-order bride for a Cuban coffee merchant (Antonio Banderas). ``Tomb Raider'' is special to her for another reason: it is the first film that she shares with her father Jon Voight who plays Lord Croft, Lara's late father.

``Tomb Raider'' has been preceded in this country by another video-to-cinema translation: ``Dungeons and Dragons'', based on the 25-year old medieval, role-playing game (RPG) that thousands of kids access on their game-playing computers. This summer also saw the U.S. release by Warners, of the third film based on the cult Japanese characters of the ``GameBoy'' machines, ``Pokemon'' which has become a surprise hit with kids worldwide. And in October this year, 20th Century Fox will bring to the big screen, the character that its TV channel ``Fox Kids'' had launched in 1999 to take on Pokemon: Digimon ( short for digital monsters). The monsters' motto is ``One small step for mon, one giant leap for monkind!'' Meanwhile, the Hollywood trade press reported a few days ago, that within weeks of its U.S.-release, Angelina Jolie has agreed to reprise her role in two more sequels to ``Tomb Raider''.

``The Internet becomes the battlefield for the DigiDestined!'' screams the publicity blurb for ``DigiMon''. As the Lara Crofts and the Pokemons, the Mortal Kombateers and the digital monsters leap seamlessly from games machine to PC to TV to cinema screen - and may be to streaming video on the Internet, the medium has become increasingly irrelevant in this race to ``grab the eyeballs'' - and the limited attention span - of the world's young and restless. But one thing is certain. The heyday of today's flesh-and-blood cinematic icons are nearly over. They will be swept aside and replaced with the idols of a new Internet Age: virtual men and women wielding laser weapons and defying the laws of gravity (and coherent story telling), as they cruise along the cyber highways of tomorrow.

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