As 2018 gets off the ground in terms of its release of high profile movies, one studio is hoping that their noble effort to reboot a classic video game movie franchise for the big screen would be a win with audiences as well as channel the kind of box office success Angelina Jolies 2001
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider received upon its initial release. The 2018 reboot comes 15 years after the last attempt at bringing Lara Croft to the big screen with
Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life. While the Angelina Jolie films were nothing groundbreaking in regards to storytelling nor capturing the spirit of the video games, they were entertaining as mindless summer popcorn blockbusters. With the new
Tomb Raider, the expectations and hope placed upon it is that the new film would go further than thee Angelina Jolie films did and bring back the soul of the games while delivering a compelling storyline for audiences. With the release of the latest installment in the popular
Tomb Raider franchise, it can be said that the newest
Raider film is an admirable effort to re-establish the iconic character for audiences but ultimately falls short of it's potential.
To put it in blunt terms,
Tomb Raider is a letdown when one looks at the lost potential with the latest reboot. Besides Alicia Vikander proving to be a worthy casting choice for the new film as well as being more than qualified to take on the physically demanding part of Lara Croft, her performance ultimately doesn't save the rest of the movie, which is surprisingly dry and lacking true excitement and thrills. It also doesn't help that Vikander's Lara Croft doesn't feel like the Croft we've grown to love and worship from the classic games, despite the known fact that this is an earlier Croft before becoming the professional female version of Indiana Jones. The plot for
Tomb Raider centers around a Lara Croft, a fiercely independent daughter of a missing adventurer, finding herself being pushed beyond her limits when she uncovers the island that lays key to her fathers disappearance. The character of Lara Croft in the gaming world was viewed both as a step forward for women, but also received criticism for representing a sexist character tailor created for the male demographic in the gaming community, wearing short shorts and a T-shirt covering her enlarged chest. The character of Lara Croft can essentially be seen as a balance between James Bond and Indiana Jones as she borrows heavily from both but more so Bond with the wealthy Scottish background, British education, and a cavalier attitude towards sex. The characters adventurous side with her going on missions to find lost artifacts or doomsday devices definitely mirrors that of Indiana Jones as her adventures are just as daring and life-threatening yet thrilling. The premise for
Tomb Raider however closely mirrors that of the 2013 rebooted game, which basically reconstructed the origins of Lara Croft for a newer generation of game players. The problem with the new
Tomb Raider is not that the film closely mirrors the 2013 rebooted game, but that the film as well as it's story is not fleshed out very well nor is truly as exciting as it could've been. Alicia Vikander delivers a strong performance as Lara Croft, but her character doesn't feel like the iconic character that audiences and video gamers grew up playing and loving. This Lara is more vulnerable, less tough, less intimidating, and less cunning than the Croft that's in the games and pales in comparison to the Lara Croft portrayed in a superior form by Angelina Jolie.
The screenplay written by Geneva Robertson Dworet and Alastair Siddons never truly allows the opportunity for Alicia Vikander's Lara Croft to morph into the action heroine figure, that's made her iconic with audiences. The father and daughter subplot in the film is more fleshed out than the one shown in the 2001
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider film, but somehow that smaller subplot conveyed more emotion and feelings between the characters and the audience than the father and daughter subplot shown in the newest Raider film (Perhaps Jon Voight whose also Angelina Jolie's father in real life playing the fictional father of her character added a touch of sentimentality to the film). Regardless of what made that subplot work, it was more effective and powerful than the relationship in the newer film. On a technical aspect,
Tomb Raider is well shot with strong Cinematography and Art-Set Decoration, that gives the audience the feeling that they are in the jungle being apart of this characters journey. The films grittier look helps to give it a more grounded approach compared to the Jolie versions with this Croft coming across as being more human than the past one on film. The film moves at a brisk pace although it feels too quick as there isn't much time to flesh out characters the way the filmmakers could've done. There's no denying that this film desperately wants to be looked upon as the Batman Begins style reboot of the Croft character but somehow the film as a whole falls flat as it never truly feels like it's exciting. As far as the films look goes, it gets a strong A for effort as the movie feels like a video game brought to life on the big screen, it's just too bad the films story couldn't be as inspiring as it's visual aspect. The performances from the main cast are convincing with Vikander proving that she's the right choice for the part and possesses strong acting abilities with Dominic West turning in a strong performance as Lara's father Lord Richard Croft and Walton Goggins as the films main antagonist Mathias Vogel.
Tomb Raider isn't a terrible movie by any means, but it's also not the theater experience that fans of the game are expecting and quite frankly, deserve much better. What makes the
Tomb Raider games so remarkable as a franchise is not that they exciting, but also how how much story the games carry. The film had it been in the hands of more passionate storytellers could've been the female
Raiders Of The Lost Ark as the character of Croft proves that she can be Indiana Jones equal if given the right story to put on film. As far as video game movies go,
Tomb Raider is not among the worst but it's also not the best (That title still belongs to Paul Anderson's 1995
Mortal Kombat), it falls somewhere in the middle as the film itself is average and never truly captures the excitement nor thrills of it's source material. What separates the Jolie films from this one is those felt like they had a sense of fun and adventure to them whereas this one feels like it never truly has fun with it's story.
Tomb Raider lacks what Jolies films both had regardless of those movies faults and that's heart. Those movies not only were fun but had thrilling set-pieces,
Tomb Raider is too much grounded in reality for it to really leave an impact with the audience.
If one is going into this movie wanting a halfway decent way to kill nearly two hours then this movie is for you. If one is looking for an exciting film that does justice to it's main character and delivers genuine thrills, then the chances are you will either be very pleased with the film or extremely disappointed as many fans appear to be split on the final outcome. Choosing between Angelina Jolie's performance and Alicia Vikanders as Croft, one has to pick Jolie as her character felt more like the true Lara Croft despite Vikander demonstrating strong emotional range. Despite the new film in the popular
Tomb Raider franchise receiving a thumbs down, one does acknowledge the strong effort by the cast and crew to deliver a worthy reboot of the classic game and character, it's too bad the script couldn't have been stronger. Perhaps someday we will receive a movie based on a popular video game that does it's source material justice while breathing new life to it's story, this unfortunately is not that film.
Final Verdict: Thumbs Down
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