Tomb Raider (2018)
Lara Croft, the fiercely independent daughter of a
missing adventurer, must push herself beyond her limits when she finds
herself on the island where her father disappeared.
Director:
Roar UthaugWriters:
Geneva Robertson-Dworet (screenplay by), Alastair Siddons (screenplay by) | 2 more credits »Stars:
Lara Croft is the fiercely independent daughter of an eccentric
adventurer who vanished when she was scarcely a teen. Now a young woman
of 21 without any real focus or purpose, Lara navigates the chaotic
streets of trendy East London as a bike courier, barely making the rent,
and takes college courses, rarely making it to class. Determined to
forge her own path, she refuses to take the reins of her father's global
empire just as staunchly as she rejects the idea that he's truly gone.
Advised to face the facts and move forward after seven years without
him, even Lara can't understand what drives her to finally solve the
puzzle of his mysterious death. Going explicitly against his final
wishes, she leaves everything she knows behind in search of her dad's
last-known destination: a fabled tomb on a mythical island that might be
somewhere off the coast of Japan. But her mission will not be an easy
one; just reaching the island will be extremely treacherous. Suddenly,
the stakes couldn't ...
Language:
EnglishRelease Date:
16 March 2018 (USA) See more »Also Known As:
Kapu plesike Lara Kroft See more »Company Credits
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Technical Specs
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ColorAspect Ratio:
2.39 : 1Did You Know?
Connections
Featured in The Graham Norton Show: Margot Robbie/Allison Janney/Alicia Vikander/Daniel Kaluuya/Camila Cabello (2018)
Had this movie been released a year ago, the movie reboot of the rebooted video game franchise, Tomb Raider,
would have passed muster, not only as one of the rare successful video
game based movie, but also an engrossing female-led film that didn’t
overtly focus on the female form.
For fans of the series, and even video games in general, Tomb Raider,
led by the the energetic if slightly mopey Lara Croft (Alicia
Vikander), borrows heavily from the rebooted video games by Square Enix,
focusing on a young, pre-archaeologist relic hunter who is a little
cocksure about her life, unsure of the future, but determined to meet it
straight on.
An incident with the authorities leads her back to Ana Miller
(Kristin Scott Thomas), who is currently running the Croft company and
wants Lara to accept that her father, Richard (Dominic West), who has
been missing for the past seven years, is dead. This leads to the
revelation that her father disappeared years ago while trying to locate
the lost tomb of Himiko, an ancient, powerful queen of Japan.
The first time we see Lara, she is openly rebellious, stubborn and
quick to take on the unknown. Alas, that arrogance is not backed by a
level of skill but by the time she is in Hong Kong trying to track down
the captain of a ship hired by her father to travel to a mysterious
island off the coast of Japan, we see a little of Lara growing up, to
face her challenges and the unknown.
If anything, the early parts of the movie are shaped like the
beginning levels of a character-driven video game, which has players
uncover some backstory, master the basic movements of the character,
before the great adventure begins. When she arrives on the island with
the help of Lu Ren (Daniel Wu), the son of the boat captain hired by
Richard, Lara has no choice but to chart her own adventure.
Instead of focusing on the professional skills of a master fighter and acrobat, as did the original Angelina Jolie-led Tomb Raider
duology, the movie spends quite some time establishing Lara’s obvious
flaws. Her diminutive size means she is no good in a straight-up brawl,
while she openly makes mistakes that can cost her her life.
Peppering these moments in the movie are segments that seem as if
they were lifted off the game. That moment where Lara jumps off the
ship? It happened in the trailer for the 2013 game. When Lara climbs the
relic of a downed plane? Bingo. Her grabbing a parachute just as the
glass cockpit she is resting on gives way?
Or how about seeing Lara make that long leap across the chasm, aided
only by an ice pickaxe? It’s not really fan service though, but more of
director Roar Uthaug turning these moments into video game cutscenes
come to life, and making quick action sequences become full-fledged
action set pieces.
While not exactly a household name, Vikander delivery of an ernest
Lara works. The casting of an unfamiliar face allows audiences to buy
into a yet untrained Lara, who is fueled by determination and
stubbornness. There are times where her dialogue feels too scripted, and
she doesn’t quite sound like her video game counterpart, but as an
interpretation of a younger version of an established heroine, the
execution is a believable one.
And despite her being responsible for saving lives, she isn’t a Mary
Sue by a long shot. She gets injured and almost dies and by the time
Lara makes her first kill on an island filled with ruthless mercenaries,
audiences can almost understand why killing is an option.
So why does the year in which the movie is released in matter? In an
attempt to make Croft seem formidable, Uthaug seems to have forgotten
that she is also human. Even as she trains and learns, she develops an
almost superhuman-like quality. What else do you call someone who jumps
off a ship, swims to shore, gets taken hostage, escapes, slams into a
log as she plummets into a raging river, climbs her way up the wings of a
crashed plane, and then climb her way through the fuselage of a plane,
before jumping off and slamming into trees, fending off an attacker, and
I’m only halfway through the second half of the movie.
She is not John Rambo or John Wick, and in the rush to create a
formidable female character, the writers have instead done a simple role
reversal that makes little to no sense. And as charming as Wu was, it
felt like his role was also underwritten. Otherwise, how do you turn
from a drunk who cannot even stand still, to becoming a soldier adept at
handling a machine gun and mounting a rescue mission?
Ultimately, Tomb Raider is a guilty pleasure that delivers.
Fans of the video games will recognize the callbacks, while those
looking for an adventure flick that doesn’t rely too much on CGI can
just sit back and enjoy a new name in adventure.
The finished product will leave you wanting more, which is just nice
because the conclusion of the film clearly sets it up as the first
chapter in a longer story.
Thanks for reading and have fun watching movies.
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