Movie adaptations of video games are
notorious for their suckitude. Whether it's due to the games'
improper interpretation onto the silver screen by people who don't
understand what made the game fun to begin with, or if it's the fact
that several hours of mood and storytelling have to be compressed
into just two hours, films based on games don't score well with
critics. But the recent wave of video game films – 2015's Agent
47, and 2016's Assassin's Creed and Warcraft –
seem to be giving a second chance to fans of both movies and video
games: people like me! So does Tomb Raider buck the trend or
does it fall victim to the old Hollywood crap trap? Let's find out.
Tomb Raider closely follows the
plot (or so I'm told) of the 2013 game which served as a reboot of
the series. Lara Croft is a gifted young woman and reluctant heir to
the Croft estate who decides to undergo a perilous adventure to find
out what led to her father's disappearance. It's a pretty standard
plot with few surprises. Given that the Tomb Raider games
range from supernaturally-driven to being grounded-in-reality, I
didn't quite know which direction to expect from this movie. I won't
spoil it for you, but I do think the route the filmmakers chose was
handled well and left me guessing right up until the film's climax.
What wasn't quite so well handled was the ending, which pulls the old
sequel-bait trick via a whole lot of last-minute revelations.
There's also a pre-credits scene where
Lara buys some handguns from a pawnshop (which, given the UK's gun
control laws, I believe is quite impossible). This scene only serves
(1) as a reference to the games and (2) as trailer filler.
Alicia Vikander does a pretty good job
of bringing Lara Croft to life. Lara's character is somewhat bland
but Vikander gives her just enough personality to keep her from being
dull. Her English accent could've been a bit better, though. Vikander
does deserve credit for performing in a very physically demanding
role; Lara gets thrown, tossed, and smacked around a lot in Tomb
Raider. And yet she hardly ever suffers any serious injuries. She
also has the gift of being able to instantly solve weird puzzles
she's never seen before. Other decent performances come from Dominic
West and Daniel Wu as Richard Croft and Lu Ren respectively. The
film's biggest not-so-great performance is from Walton Goggins as the
main villain Mathias Vogel, though to be fair this may be more due to
the way this character is written. Vogel is completely colourless and
without any charisma whatsoever.
The overall production of Tomb
Raider leaves much to be desired. Computer-generated effects are
everywhere; there's scarcely a scene after the first 15 minutes that
doesn't have them. The environments are a mixed bag as well. There
are some scenes that take place in interesting locations – for
example, a foot chase across small boats on a busy pier – but other
locations (mainly the tombs) are only lightly detailed and without
much character.
Another downer is that most of the
fight scenes are presented through that really choppy,
incomprehensible editing that 21st century action movies
frequently suffer from. I will never understand why directors are so
hellbent on preventing their audiences from being able to tell what's
going on when two people are fighting!
And that's Tomb Raider, a
thoroughly OK action-adventure film. It isn't as much dumb fun as the
original starring Angelina Jolie, but its more serious tone is done
well enough and Alicia Vikander is a worthy Lara Croft in her own
right. In short, Tomb Raider is easily one of the better video
game-to-movie adaptations out there. But, again, that's not saying
much.
Grade:
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