Tomb Raider (2018)

'Tomb Raider' is the third film based on the hit video game series which originally started on the silver screen with the lovely Angelina Jolie and while those films are guilty pleasures thanks to their silly action film nature, the 2018 film bases its style on the recent reboot of the game which takes a darker and more gruesome approach. While this new film does stay quite faithful to its source more than many other video game movies, it also lacks the gritty bite of the story it's attempting to adapt.

The newest incarnation of Lara Croft starts her journey as she tries to discover what happened to her long lost father, finding a deeply rooted conspiracy and an ancient evil along the way. The 2013 reboot game was an attempt to ground the 'Tomb Raider' series in a more realistic tone, while not losing some of the elements that made previous games so beloved. The film does stay faithful to this philosophy as it takes most (but not all) of the best elements of the game and recreates it well enough. The film makes some significant changes such as cutting out large amounts of violence and other disturbing elements to keep a tamer rating but it also makes some changes that I felt were wise decisions. The supernatural or Indiana Jones like elements present in the game series is taken away here and for some fans it will seem like a big letdown, but I saw it as a nice change to the cliche magical elements seen throughout these types of films.

While it's perfectly understandable that the studio wanted a marketable rating for the film as the series does primarily draw a younger crowd (the recent games being the only 'M' rated entries) I feel that it took away a lot of the bite the game has. You see Lara get beat up, broken down, and through all that she still stands tall and comes out stronger than ever. You see her over the course of one game become the character we all love, and while the movie does this progressive storyline well it's lighter tone makes the impact much softer. In the 2018 film she seems too invincible, surviving so many falls and wounds that would kill normal people whereas the game played this aspect more straight and she was visibly and permanently wounded throughout your journey playing.

This lighter tone also seems to have required significant changes to the overall script, and we get a mash-up of both the 2013 game and its sequel 'Rise of Tomb Raider' and overall despite my gripes with the more straightforward direction they're going for I think this is the best way they could have combined the two stories and set up another adventure down the line. As far as the characters go, you're all wondering how Alicia Vikander is as Lara right? Well, I feel mixed emotions here and not because she isn't better than Jolie's portrayal. Really, the Lara Croft of those previous movies are more akin to the earlier games, which had elements of cheese and campiness throughout and that fit Jolie's portrayal of her, whereas here Vikander plays it straight, but unfortunately it's a little too straight in my opinion. For someone who won an Academy Award and clearly had passion for this story and gave it her all she comes off to me as a little wooden. In the 2013 game Lara was more serious and never said a one liner throughout but she still showed strong emotions for her loved ones and friends, true guilt from having to resort to killing a person to survive among other things. In the film, she tries her best to pull these off but I feel that she's only at her very best when interacting with her father (Dominic West) and here is where I felt she truly shined.

As for the villains, I'm really sorry to say this because I like the guy but I am really getting sick of Walton Goggins getting typecast in the cliche villain roles as I feel he's got more range than people give him credit. Without a doubt, he is the weakest element in the film doing nothing more than say some Bond villain dialogue and brandishing a gun in people's faces. They really stripped the character down from the game to the most basic ideas possible. Add to that, we have the cliche secret society as the main antagonist which is becoming one of the most annoying story lines in both mediums. While 'Tomb Raider' isn't going to win any major awards, its a perfectly fun popcorn flick that is pretty inoffensive and my gripes come mainly as a fan of the games. For fans of action movies who need something quick and fun, check out 'Tomb Raider' as it's by far the best video game adaptation I've seen so far.

6.9/10