Movielogr

Rating: 6 stars

Tags

video game shipwreck island father daughter pawn shop London bicycle chase mercenaries

All movies seen on 09/12/2019

View on: IMDb | TMDb

Tomb Raider (2018)

Directed by Roar Uthaug

Action | Adventure | Thriller

Most recently watched by archstanton43, CaptainBigTime, sensoria

Overview

Lara Croft, the fiercely independent daughter of a missing adventurer, must push herself beyond her limits when she finds herself on the island where her father disappeared.

Rated PG-13 | Length 118 minutes

Actors

Alicia Vikander | Dominic West | Walton Goggins | Daniel Wu | Kristin Scott Thomas | Derek Jacobi | Alexandre Willaume-Jantzen | Tamer Burjaq | Adrian Collins | Keenan Arrison | Andrian Mazive | Milton Schorr | Hannah John-Kamen | Peter Waison | Samuel Mak | Sky Yang | Civic Chung | Josef Altin | Billy Postlethwaite | Roger Nsengiyumva | Jaime Winstone | Michael Obiora | Shekhar Varma | Rekha John-Cheriyan | Antonio Aakeel | Maisy De Freitas | Emily Carey | Gordon Chow | Duncan Airlie James | Jandre le Roux | Vere Tindale | Annabel Elizabeth Wood | Kenneth Fok | Maruwan Gasant | Nick Frost | Sarah Sayuri Hare

Viewing History (seen 2 times)

Viewing Notes

After the announcement of Ben Wheatley hired to direct the sequel I wanted to revisit this one, which I recalled enjoying for the most part (also I did not realize this was only released just last year! Wow, thought it was older). got the 4K UHD from the library network (Northbrook) and it wouldn’t work. Like it just stalled out during the opening credits. Pressing to the next chapter brought up the FBI warning in different languages. So weird. I hoping it was just a bad disc.

So today I picked up the standard Blu from my library intent on viewing it tonight. Sorry to report that my opinion of this movie has gone down a bit. Not that I had a super favorable opinion to begin with but I’m disappointed with the movie for a few reasons.

I’m guessing most of my impression this time has to due w/playing both Tomb Raider ‘13 and Rise of the Tomb Raider (2015) last year (both the 3rd and 2nd most recent TR games with Shadow of a Tomb Raider having released last year, 2018). Now I get what people had issues with and I share some of those. The game (this film is loosely based off the Tomb Raider 2013 storyline) has a much better and more involved story. Yes, I know, it’s got more room and time to tell that story. But the movie adaptation only takes one story beat (Himiko legend) to develop the adventure when there are so many elements they could’ve used within that framework.

My guess is that the writers didn’t want to make a movie that was already played out in the game opting for a similar story but more of their own doing rather than the game authors. Which is fair and would’ve worked if their script would’ve been at least as good as the game; it’s not. The movie is so damn linear point A to point B with really nothing else except for some hamfisted flashback nonsense w/Lara & her father. So unnecessary and totally drags this movie down every time they flash back.

Coulda been “father disappeared but left you this thing which may be a clue” and that’s it. Now she goes on her adventure. It’s like the origin story for dummies who need to be shown Lara practicing archery as a girl to know how she can shoot a bow later. Fucking stupid and such a waste.

I’m fine w/Lara’s intro and the bike chase but as soon as she’s got Clue #1 she should be in HK or wherever and meeting Daniel Wu and off to the island post haste. I like this change from the game but I do miss her cohorts on the trip and all that but there’s not room for more characters.

Lara finally gets to the island and all the father stuff is so dumb and forced to up the stakes yet I have no attachment as a viewer and only want to see the tomb stuff play out. They could easily remove all the father crap and have Daniel Wu subbed for the moment where Lara helps them open the tomb. His life or open the tomb. I just got nothing out of her relationship w/her father she hasn’t seen for 7 years (nothing against Dominic West, but they could keep the flashbacks of him then when she arrives on the island and escapes, she locates his dead body/skeleton then has to go back to rescue Wu and agrees to open the tomb door).

I like that puzzles are integrated into the story but the fact that the mercs for hire couldn’t blow up the rock around the iron entrance to the tomb seems dumb. I’d like a better explanation of why they could use explosives everywhere else around that mountain but nothing worked on it near the door. Even if it’s a fantastical reason just throw it out there b/c it just looks dumb.

All the stuff in the tomb is fine. All the action beats are fine. Oddly nothing in film seems as harrowing as the stuff in the game. Maybe the waterfall / crashed plane sequence is on par w/the game. 

When Alicia Vikander was announced as the new Lara, I was indifferent. She’s good in this movie. However, after playing those TR games it would’ve been neat to have someone that resembled that version of Lara. Totally get that Vikander was an “it girl” of the moment so that casting made sense. They aren’t going to cast a B-List or unknown in a tentpole film but someone along the lines of Jaimie Alexander would’ve been cool.

Anyways, giving this a generous 6/10 for now. Might go lower the more I stew on it.

Comments