YOUR MOVIE REVIEW
GREG Thorp, who lives in Rawtenstall, has been a huge film enthusiast from a very young age. He is a fan of Quentin Tarantino, Wes Anderson and Denis Villeneuve.
One of his all-time favourite picks is Raiders of the Lost Ark. Indiana Jones was one of the first films he ever watched and is his favourite childhood film.
You can email him with comments and observations at: gregthorpreviews@gmail.com Tomb Raider, 12A, 118 mins
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Director: Roar Uthaug
AT its best, Tomb Raider is a passable action movie.
It has some cool fight scenes and a neat tomb to raid. But this iteration of iconic adventurer Lara Croft misses the mark by reducing her identity to her relationship with her missing father and her physical prowess. This movie may directly lift many elements from the excellent 2013 video game reboot, but it disappointingly chooses not to develop what made Lara an interesting and deep character.
Seven years after Richard Croft (her dad’s) disappearance, the estranged Lara has abandoned her family fortune and has instead chosen to work as a courier who struggles to make ends meet. The first few scenes have the sole purpose of displaying her athleticism, but ultimately fail to develop Lara’s character beyond mild angst as she drifts through life.
The fact that she had no prior interest in archaeology or desire for adventure makes her a bland heroine next to the video game character, despite lead actress Alicia Vikander’s best attempts to bring the character to life.
She only finds something to care about after she discovers her father’s secret archaeology hideout. She then uses his research on an uncharted island and its supernatural queen to look for him.
The inherent bond between parent and child may not need to be explained, but when every memory we see of Lara and her father together is limited to painful departures, it’s difficult to buy into what makes their relationship special.
The father she thought was always off on business trips was actually risking his life researching supernatural beings while an evil organisation, Trinity, tried to exploit his work. Hinging this film on their relationship is frail from the very beginning, and it is only further undermined when Lara sells the one gift from him she treasured to embark on her adventure.
Tomb Raider does at least bring in the action and death-defying feats from the 2013 game in interesting ways.
Even the way Lara swings across debris and climbs walls with her pickaxe are mirrored with success.
Her ferocity and determination in hand-tohand combat creates believable and exciting fight scenes with the mercenaries she encounters on the island. But these game homages ultimately can’t compensate for the film’s overall mishandling of Lara.
Most of the men Lara meets either flirt with her or want to kill her - or both! And there are maybe three other women in Tomb Raider that have more than one line.
The game saw her transform from a bright-eyed archaeologist into a high-octane adventurer.
Instead, this Tomb Raider is one irritating trope after another.
One of the main perpetrators of Lara’s mistreatment here is the antagonist and leader of Trinity forces on the island, Mathias.
While Walton Goggins’ villain is just as onedimensional as everyone else in this film, when you pair his awkward performance with unconvincing motives you are left with one awful and downright irritating character. He’s only intimidating because of the gun he often wields, but even when he tries to threaten people it comes off more as a joke (just like his character). Even worse, Mathias’ motives for his evil deeds, while understandable, remain unconvincing.
The island and its secrets prove a better, more formidable antagonist for Lara. While there’s only one tomb being raided here, and it doesn’t have anything you wouldn’t have already seen in another adventure film, it’s still the most fun part of Tomb Raider.
That being said, it would have been great to see another small tomb or set of puzzles for Lara to work through on her own to better establish her as an intellectual rather than just an athlete.
People who love Lara’s character do so because of the game series and the majority of the games are filled with puzzles and tombs alike. This film does not satisfy this aspect which fans cherish.
Unfortunately, Vikander isn’t given much to work with to make Lara Croft a great character.
The one scene where the Academy Award winner shines is stolen from the 2013 game, in which Lara is first forced to kill for survival. It’s a quiet, impactful shot where Lara struggles to internalise murdering another person.
Tomb Raider doesn’t give her much time to deal with the trauma in the ensuing moments, but Vikander successfully conveys that pain before the next scene tears her away. Tomb Raider simply doesn’t give Vikander enough time to shape Lara as a fully realised character.
It’s a shame to see the trend of poor game-tofilm adaptations continue with a character as great as Lara Croft. In this new Tomb Raider origin story, Lara’s singular drive to find her father falls flat because their relationship isn’t interesting, and that failure is compounded by a frankly bland story and characters. A few interesting puzzles and death traps are too little, too late to save this Tomb Raider feature from mediocrity.