Tomb Raider
This is how you do a reboot properly. Erasing all memories of the (often incoherent) Angelina Jolie movies, this rebooted Tomb Raider is a far more grounded and visceral adaptation of the videogame franchise, that should appeal to gamers and non-gamers alike. Arguably the best videogame-to-film adaption to date.
Premise: Seven years after her father’s disappearance, twenty-something Lara Croft struggles to get by as a bike courier after refusing to accept her inheritance (which would require her to declare her father legally dead). But a new clue sets Lara on a course to follow her father’s trail to the lost island of Yamatai, and the mythical tomb of its queen, Himiko.
Review:
First things first, if you’re not a fan of Angelina Jolie’s two Lara Croft: Tomb Raider movies from 2001 and 2003, don’t let that put you off this film, as this Tomb Raider reboot really couldn’t be a more different take on the character. Remember how different Daniel Craig’s Bond in Casino Royale was from Roger Moore’s eyebrow raising shenanigans? Well that’s how different Alicia Vikander’s take on Lara Croft is from Angelina Jolie’s.
Secondly, if you don’t like any other videogame-to-film adaptions, don’t let that put you off, as this film stands on its own two feet as a great rollercoaster ride of a movie in its own right. Yes, it is (surprisingly) faithful to the tone and premise of the critically acclaimed 2013 videogame reboot (and to a lesser extent, its 2015 sequel), but if you’d never heard of the Tomb Raider videogames before you saw this film, you would just enjoy this movie for the entertaining two hours that it is. (That said, if you are a fan of the 2013 videogame, there are lots of little extra touches to enjoy in this film).
“…gives Lara Croft’s character an arc that had been missing in the previous films…”
The most obvious differences between this film and the Angelina Jolie movies are the tone and the point at which the viewer first meets Lara Croft. Angelina Jolie’s version of Lara Croft was already an experienced (and practically superhuman) adventurer at the start of her film, whereas Tomb Raider picks up Lara Croft’s story before any of that. And I think this is part of what makes this reboot such an enjoyable film, because the viewer gets a chance to get to know Lara Croft as a person before the real adventure begins.
When the film opens, Lara (Alicia Vikander) is living a hand-to-mouth existence, struggling to get by as a bike courier after refusing to accept her family inheritance because she's not willing to accept that her father is really dead. Getting this insight into Lara Croft’s day-to-day life – as well as the gaping whole left by the disappearance of her father, Lord Richard Croft (Dominic West) – gives her character an arc that had been missing in the previous films. This is very much her origin story, a “Lara Croft Begins”, you might say.
In fact, it’s a good twenty minutes into the film before Lara Croft even sets off on her adventure, after pawning the last of her mementos to hire drunken sailor Lu Ren (Daniel Wu) to take her to the suspected location of Yamatai. By the time the excrement truly hits the fan, we’ve already spent about a quarter of the film getting to know Lara in a relatively ordinary setting, so when she starts being forced to take extraordinary measures to survive, we get a better sense of the character’s evolution.
“…pretty brutal and uncompromising in places for a 12A…”
This ties into the very different tone of the new Tomb Raider film. The first Angelina Jolie movie opened with her performing superhuman acrobatics while shooting a giant robot in what turned out to be a high-tech combat training facility in her home. To say that the film wasn’t grounded in reality is an understatement. Tomb Raider, on the other hand, is pretty brutal and uncompromising in places for a 12A. Once Lara has to start fighting for survival on the island, the violence is not overly sugar-coated – the first time she is forced to kill in self-defence, for example, is a particularly visceral moment, and the emotional impact the act has on her is not lost either.
Alicia Vikander is a great choice as the new Lara Croft. I’ve been a fan of her work since I first saw her in the excellent Ex_Machina, and she’s often the best thing in whatever film she’s in (as indicated by her Best Supporting Actress Oscar win). She has a great range, which she utilises well in this film, evolving from the apparently happy-go-lucky girl in the opening scenes who’s actually hiding the pain from being abandoned by her sole surviving parent, to the strong woman on the island who finds hidden strengths when faced with impossible choices. It really is Alicia Vikander’s film, and she carries it ably.
“…a damn enjoyable popcorn movie…”
Walton Goggins makes the biggest impression among the supporting cast, because Walton Goggins always finds a way to bring his characters to life in an interesting way. His character is perhaps not the most memorable villain on paper, but Walton Goggins portrays him as a man who, in his own twisted mind, is as much of a victim as anyone else, which is an interesting take. Dominic West doesn’t get a lot to do in his flashbacks as Lara’s father, and Daniel Wu is equally sidelined as Lara’s travelling companion, while Kristin Scott Thomas and Derek Jacobi are little more than cameos as the executives running Croft Holdings in Lord Croft’s absence.
In the grand scheme of things, this is still a “popcorn” movie rather than high art – but it’s a damn enjoyable popcorn movie if you approach it on those terms. It still has the fantastical, larger-than-life moments (such as the raid on the mythical tomb itself), but they’re set in a more grounded and realistic world, which ups the dramatic ante. There will, of course, always be those who turn their noses up at Tomb Raider simply because it’s a videogame-to-film adaptation, but the truth is Tomb Raider is head and shoulders above all other recent entries in that subgenre (such as 2014’s Need for Speed, 2015’s Hitman: Agent 47, 2016’s Warcraft: The Beginning, or 2017’s Assassin's Creed).
