Review of 'Tomb Raider'

A contemporary reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise once made famous by Angelina Jolie sees this Lara Croft (Alicia Vikander) an altogether less assured Lara struggling to come to terms with the disappearance of her father seven years previous. As a bicycle courier in London a high speed chase through the streets results in her being jailed then freed by her father's old business partner who presents her with a Japanese puzzle box in which she finds a key. The key opens the door to her father's study where Lara discovers his obsession with finding the tomb of Himiko, an ancient Japanese sorceress who brought death to anyone who came near her. Scraping together the money she heads off to Asia to see if she can find out what became of her father starting first in Hong Kong to see if she can find a boat that will be willing to take her to the island where it is rumoured the sorceress is buried…

Put away what you think of when you hear “Tomb Raider”, this is a new Lara Croft for a new generation without the exaggerated…er…figure and a much weaker, less assured character struggling to find her way in the world. For all of the action in the sorceress' tomb (without really giving anything away) this film is highly focused on character though plot does tend to have a few holes: “What non-nefarious reason would you want to find a sorceress who was known for killing people?” springs to mind. Vikander does a great job and is certainly physically up to the role and not someone you would want to meet in a dark alley. Lu Ren (Daniel Wu) as the captain is fun and interesting, providing a bit more grounding to the obsessed Lara. However the baddie, Mathias Vogel (Walton Goggins) is significantly more one-dimensional with little attempt to hide is true intentions (get sorceress, kill people).

The action is somewhat toned back from the original Tomb Raider series though is still very much Indiana Jones-style material complete with the stone triggers in the floor (yes, yet more booby traps)…Some of the larger set pieces don't entirely convince including the storm at sea and eventual land-fall.

A surprisingly entertaining and enjoyable re-imagining of Tomb Raider for those fans of the archaeological action thriller…

Rating: “Really good but I have some issues”

Review Date: 2019-02-24

Directed by: Roar Uthaug

Studio: GK Films

Year: 2018

Length: 119 minutes

Genre: Action/Adventure

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1365519/

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