Film Reviews & Movie Analysis

You know what they say – all the best tombs should be left un-raided… or better yet, all the tomb raiding should be left to the professionals.

Headstrong Lara Croft (Alicia Vikander) still refuses to give up on her father, despite him disappearing seven years ago and having been long presumed dead. With all of the Croft Company’s assets at risk if Lara doesn’t accept her position within it, she makes one last bid to find out what happened to her father.

Armed with his research alluding to the mysterious Himiko, Lara traces his footsteps to Hong Kong where an equally invested Lu Ren (Daniel Wu) accompanies her to an island in the middle of the Devil’s Sea.

Lara’s journey is filled with lines she never thought she would cross, and limits she is pushed beyond. She uses her brains, intuition and bow and arrow to face looming dangers on all sides, one of which dances on the line between fact and fantasy.

The elements of this movie that I liked (yes there were things I enjoyed) are on the subtle side of things. For instance Lara’s girly yelps while she was fighting/being beaten up made it feel a lot more realistic – like she wasn’t a woman accustomed to being kicked in the face after months of training for the role.

I was really digging the whole; Posh Brit slumming it vibe that we got a three second glimpse into. It wasn’t utilized to its full potential, but those early scenes where she was a courier by day and living in South London by night were a fab reminisce of reality.

Comparatively to Angelina Jolie’s, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) I was happy that they went with someone a lot younger looking. I did think that it would annoy me when Alicia Vikander was first announced, but overall it worked – her naivety and blind eagerness in pursuit of her definition of ‘the right thing’ gave her character some much needed definition.

Yes there were things I liked about this movie but at the end of the day I won’t pretend that as a whole I enjoyed it. It was less than average at best, and less than average at worst. Put simply, it bored me.

In order to stop myself turning a review into a rant, here are some of the questions that plagued me the whole way through the movie…. Why didn’t Lara listen to her dad’s explicit instructions? What was even the point of Nick Frost? What does choosing not to live in a fancy mansion have to do with your dad disappearing? Why were there so many hollow daddy daughter flashbacks?

The story was entirely too predictable, and nothing was in the least bit viewer friendly. Lara Croft played with puzzle boxes and solved riddles with the efficiency that some of us have for finding the appropriate Gif for any given situation.

Instead of using that as a means to engage the viewer, she was that selfish child during play time who kept the fun toy to herself while everyone else could only speculate at the fun she was having all by herself.

Is it too much of a generalisation to just ask for whoever is in charge to just do better?

I am in no way trying to be a playground bully when I ask if anyone has ever heard of Roar Uthaug (Director), Alastair Siddons (Writer) or Geneva Robertson-Dworet (Writer)? Except for whoever that one exception to rule the is – I didn’t think so.  I’m sure these people are great, but Tomb Raider was doomed to fail from the beginning because everyone already thought it would fail.

Where were the experienced Filmmakers? Where were the artists who would have put their mark on the new franchise? Where was the effort? We have no idea how these things get decided but if there is a sequel to Tomb Raider, then here’s hoping the next team to take charge will work to give it a fighting chance.

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