Hollywood is not giving up on "Tomb Raider." Oscar-winner Alicia Vikander dons Lara Croft's signature shorts and tank top in this reboot of the popular video game franchise that was abandoned in the early 2000s by Paramount Pictures when its second Angelina Jolie-led effort flopped. Despite 15 years and new minds at MGM and Warner Bros. taking over, the new "Tomb Raider" still feels an awful lot like a 2000s movie.
Based on the 2013 video game reboot of the franchise, "Tomb Raider" is a Lara Croft origin story. The approach to revive the character feels extremely similar to the "reboot" MGM did with the "James Bond" films when Daniel Craig came aboard - make it grittier and character-focused.
That's where "Tomb Raider" does succeed. Vikander gives Croft a total makeover from tall, busty sex-appeal action hero to petite, scrappy, tough and independent heroine. Vikander makes Lara infinitely more human, taking cues from some of the best action hero performances by struggling and experiencing pain and anguish. She's just working in an extremely stale, cliché story.
Seven years after her father's (Dominic West) disappearance, Lara is living a troubled life, scraping by as a mail courier and still unable to accept her father's death. Right as she's about to sign the papers acknowledging his death in absentia, she receives a clue that leads her to the lost Japanese island where he went missing while in search of the tomb of an ancient Japanese queen with supernatural powers, and she goes there looking for answers.
Nothing in "Tomb Raider" wasn't covered by "Indiana Jones," "The Mummy" or even "National Treasure" franchise and that's where it fizzles. The riddle- and puzzle-solving, discovering hidden sites, and power struggles over finding the power at the center of it all - these are all tropes of other movie franchises that have gone out of style. Although they are true to the "Tomb Raider" games and there's a reason so many movies have used them, it's a decade later and story writers Geneva Robertson-Dworet (who also wrote the screenplay) and Evan Daugherty ("Snow White and the Huntsman") bring nothing new to the mix. Even the much-improved handling of Lara comes with a too-familiar daddy-issues back story.
Norwegian director Roar Uthaug does a capable job bringing some grit instead of shiny, stylized video game action to this series, though the script really pushes the extent to which we can believe Lara can survive the jumps, falls and bruises. Generally, however, the action is suspenseful and watchable and not at all the issue.
Despite being an origin story, the film generates not much more than indifference toward the plot and Lara's personal journey. Her street life and decision to journey out in search of closure is constructed on hollow clichés and we can sniff out exactly the way her story will turn out, turning her into the classic Lara fans know and love by the film's end. Even the most compelling performance by an Oscar-winning actress is only so interesting when the story deposits her into old, well-worn situations.
The good news is that I could watch Vikander's Lara Croft again in a better, more original story, but it doesn't seem like the box office numbers will give her the chance.
~Steven C
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Based on the 2013 video game reboot of the franchise, "Tomb Raider" is a Lara Croft origin story. The approach to revive the character feels extremely similar to the "reboot" MGM did with the "James Bond" films when Daniel Craig came aboard - make it grittier and character-focused.
That's where "Tomb Raider" does succeed. Vikander gives Croft a total makeover from tall, busty sex-appeal action hero to petite, scrappy, tough and independent heroine. Vikander makes Lara infinitely more human, taking cues from some of the best action hero performances by struggling and experiencing pain and anguish. She's just working in an extremely stale, cliché story.
Seven years after her father's (Dominic West) disappearance, Lara is living a troubled life, scraping by as a mail courier and still unable to accept her father's death. Right as she's about to sign the papers acknowledging his death in absentia, she receives a clue that leads her to the lost Japanese island where he went missing while in search of the tomb of an ancient Japanese queen with supernatural powers, and she goes there looking for answers.
Nothing in "Tomb Raider" wasn't covered by "Indiana Jones," "The Mummy" or even "National Treasure" franchise and that's where it fizzles. The riddle- and puzzle-solving, discovering hidden sites, and power struggles over finding the power at the center of it all - these are all tropes of other movie franchises that have gone out of style. Although they are true to the "Tomb Raider" games and there's a reason so many movies have used them, it's a decade later and story writers Geneva Robertson-Dworet (who also wrote the screenplay) and Evan Daugherty ("Snow White and the Huntsman") bring nothing new to the mix. Even the much-improved handling of Lara comes with a too-familiar daddy-issues back story.
Norwegian director Roar Uthaug does a capable job bringing some grit instead of shiny, stylized video game action to this series, though the script really pushes the extent to which we can believe Lara can survive the jumps, falls and bruises. Generally, however, the action is suspenseful and watchable and not at all the issue.
Despite being an origin story, the film generates not much more than indifference toward the plot and Lara's personal journey. Her street life and decision to journey out in search of closure is constructed on hollow clichés and we can sniff out exactly the way her story will turn out, turning her into the classic Lara fans know and love by the film's end. Even the most compelling performance by an Oscar-winning actress is only so interesting when the story deposits her into old, well-worn situations.
The good news is that I could watch Vikander's Lara Croft again in a better, more original story, but it doesn't seem like the box office numbers will give her the chance.
~Steven C
Thanks for reading! Visit Movie Muse Reviews for more