Thursday, March 15, 2018

Tomb Raider Movie Review

Alicia Vikander stars in Tomb Raider

No Pay, No Play

Rotten Tomatoes Plot: Lara Croft (Alicia Vikander) is the fiercely independent daughter of an eccentric adventurer (Dominic West) who vanished when she was scarcely a teen. Now a young woman of 21 without any real focus or purpose, Lara navigates the chaotic streets of trendy East London as a bike courier, barely making the rent, and takes college courses, rarely making it to class. Determined to forge her own path, she refuses to take the reins of her father's global empire just as staunchly as she rejects the idea that he's truly gone. Advised to face the facts and move forward after seven years without him, even Lara can't understand what drives her to finally solve the puzzle of his mysterious death. Going explicitly against his final wishes, she leaves everything she knows behind in search of her dad's last-known destination: a fabled tomb on a mythical island that might be somewhere off the coast of Japan. But her mission will not be an easy one; just reaching the island will be extremely treacherous. Suddenly, the stakes couldn't be higher for Lara, who - against the odds and armed with only her sharp mind, blind faith and inherently stubborn spirit - must learn to push herself beyond her limits as she journeys into the unknown. If she survives this perilous adventure, it could be the making of her, earning her the name tomb raider. Directed by Roar Uthaug.


"Finally, a Croft with some sense." Unfortunately, Uthaug can't seem to take his eyes off her cleavage, long enough to showcase it. Vikander certainly looks the part (hats off to her trainer) but the Swedish Oscar winner can't solve her director's curious choice to turn a half-decent movie into yet another poor man's Raiders of the Lost Ark. Even worse, the writing (Geneva Robertson-Dworet, Alastair Siddons) which features such gems as, "You just lost your tip. You just lost your tongue." But then again, this is a video game flick, and Laura 2.0 handles the action sequences expertly. Passable (barely.)

Grade: D