Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003)'s comments

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of this two-movie series is that we still don't know why Lara Croft does what she does. Both movies feature the "save the world" trope but as far as the deeper motivations of what make Lara a tomb raider are never touched upon. In the beginning of this movie at the Luna Temple there's a brief moment when Lara spots the orb and proclaims "It's mine" but then the bad guys show up and its back to saving the world again. In that brief two word line of dialog the true tomb raider is put forth, but why? Does she do it for the adventure, the spoils, the glory, or to sell the items to finance her mansion's expenses? At least with another tomb raider kind of character like Indiana Jones there was never any doubt as to his motivation: he trucked all over the world to get trinkets to stick in his university's museum and if an adventure was had along the way, more so the better. It's a severe lack of underlying motivation that puts the ceiling on either of these two films from being spectacular.