At Least It’s Better Than Those Other Movies
Loosely based on the reboot of the video game series, this entry stumbles into the theaters like a ship onto a mysterious island. Alicia Vikander takes on the mantle of the famous heroine, Lara Croft, before she found the love of raiding tombs. Her whole motivation throughout the movie is influenced by her father, Dominic West, who’s always managed to let her down by never being home, choosing to study ancient artifacts in far off countries instead. How she has any trace of compassion for the man is one of the movies biggest mysteries.
***Warning Spoilers***
Tomb Raider is really good at not explaining things well. Who is this lady bailing Lara out? How does Lara know how to instantly solve anything? What boat did they use when the first Croft went to the island? Why was there a modern climbing pick in this ancient tomb? You know, the important stuff. It feels like Lara progressed through her adventure with a lot of lucky guesses and moves, giving us a sense of lazy writing. I guess she can just wrestle a bad guy, run around, and climb a cliff in the middle of the night in a tank top with a stab wound in her stomach.
Vikander does her best as the lead. This rendition of the character comes before her love of delving into ruins, so she isn’t all that fully developed as the original super-heroine that the world is familiar with. By this, she is pretty aimless and scraping by day to day. Genuinely scared as she fights for her life in every encounter on this dangerous island. It’s just too bad that the character development is rushed and crammed into one movie.
The supporting cast was a mix bag. Her biggest ally is a depressed sailor, who ends up disappearing throughout most of the movie. The villain is a crazy slave driver with almost no backstory. And surprise, her father is alive and is a delusional caveman. I’m still not completely sure how the corporate lady is connected to the family.
When we get to the actual tomb raiding, it’s a little lackluster. After cracking a puzzle on the main entrance with no effort, we enter the Indiana Jones part of the movie. The traps felt clunky and and uninspired. The spike trap felt like it takes pure luck to pass, chasm was just too easy, floor room was alright, and sarcophagus was just weird. When Lara was fighting off a henchman, I guess there’s this random area, in essence of the Resident Evil laser hall?
The movie tries really hard to pay tribute to the video game that it’s based off of. Sometimes it works, and other times it doesn’t. Probably the best scene was her struggle with a raging river and dilapidated airplane. This sequence was very tense and it felt like playing the video game. Other than this, wielding a bow instead of guns, random climbing axe, and getting stabbed in the stomach felt like they were there just because it was in the game.
This reboot based off of a reboot was okay, but it was really clunky. If you watched the ending, it sets itself up for a sequel. Even for a two hour movie, it feels like they crammed a lot and rushed through a lot of things. I suppose it is better than the original movies that we got with Angelina Jolie, this still falls victim to the quality of movies that are based off of video games.