Throwback Thursday Review: 'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider'

Sorry for the slight delay, but I prioritized an early review of Tomb Raider last week before even stopping to watch Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Anyways, I'm reviewing Lara Croft: Tomb Raider to coincide with last weekend's release of the 2018 incarnation. If you're wondering what happened with the previous week's Throwback Thurday, I was originally going to review A Wrinkle in Time (2004) till I found out it was a four hour eleven minute TV movie... I read the novel in seventh grade and can recall watching the TV movie in class, but I'd rather not spend four hours watching something I already know I dislike just to turn around and spend another few hours writing about it... Now that that's all cleared up, you can expect to see the following reviews through the remainder of March. This includes Throwback Thursday Reviews of Pacific Rim, and Jurassic Park, new reviews of Pacific Rim: Uprising, Isle of Dogs, and Ready Player One.

'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider' Review

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider accompanies the adept adventurer Lara Croft as she races across the globe to save the world by keeping ancient artifacts out of the wrong hands. There's not really much of a plot beyond that simple set-up though, as Croft merely globe trotted from ancient ruin to ancient ruin for little else than an over-the-top action sequence.

For whatever reason, I've found it incredibly difficult to write about this movie (hence why this review's a week late). What could I possibly have to say about this that hasn't already been said? It's an adaptation that accurately reflects the silly escapades lead by an accomplished femme fatale found in the the Tomb Raider video game series from the '90s. Director Simon West clearly wasn't interested in deviating from the source material much at all, as the film adaptation hardly explores anything else. Instead, viewers are offered an exploitation of Angelina Jolie's sex appeal which was meant to disguise a faulty action flick. Did that work? Not really. I was entirely unengaged when Lara wasn't wrapped up in some silly situation. When something did catch my attention, I was still uninvested in the story at hand.

The film's enjoyable in the sense that everything you watch unfold is so preposterous that you can't help but smile amidst it all. The script is composed of an outlandish story strung together by John Zinman, Patrick Massett, and Michael Colleary, a silly screenplay full of corny dialogue penned by Mike Were and Sara B. Cooper, while West himself is credited by the Writers Guild for the adaptation itself. The action sequences don't fair much better either, as it's all spectacle for the sake of  including spectacle. As an viewer, I could have cared less whether Lara emerged triumphant over the stone monkeys or not. And on that note, the CGI is ridiculously dated. Of course, that's because this came out in 2001, but I think the effects are still lacking for the time in which they were rendered.

Angelina Jolie commits to Lara Croft's over-sexualized attitude, but there's little else going on for the character. Jolie just fights varying baddies and stops every once and a while to pose like a vapid lipstick/lingerie model (there's a significant emphasis on her lips, hips, and breasts)... I suppose she succeeded at playing the sex icon the filmmakers were hoping for, but I'd hardly call that acting. I'd comment on her co-stars, but they hardly do anything in the film worth mentioning. I can at least say it was interesting to see what Daniel Craig and Iain Glen were up to seventeen years ago before they became James Bond and Jorah Mormont respectively. It's nice to know they found success elsewhere.

After watching Lara Croft: Tomb Raider for the first time on Netflix, I've only become more appreciative of this year's Tomb Raider. It's easy to understand why this film franchise's tomb was ever sealed to begin with.

Film Assessment: D

'Tomb Raider' Review

Tomb Raider accompanies Lara Croft, the fiercely independent daughter of a missing adventurer, as she embarks on a harrowing journey to solve the mystery of her father's disappearance. As a result of her perilous quest, Lara winds up marooned on the same island where her father disappeared seven years ago. Suddenly, the stakes couldn't be higher for Lara as she must survive against all odds armed with only her sharp mind, blind faith, and inherently stubborn spirit.

It's no secret that video games haven't quite found sure-fire success in the medium of film. There's yet to be a critical darling and very few have found fortune at the box office (Sorry, but Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Wreck-It Ralph don't count). Many have dubbed this long running streak of flops to be a "video game curse," and audiences have been eagerly awaiting an entertaining adaptation that would end this jinx and open the door for quality features based on video games. In 2016, there seemed to be hope on the horizon in the form of Warcraft and Assassin's Creed but neither proved worthy of the feat and fell flat critically and financially. Now, eyes have turned upon Tomb Raider to be the breakthrough breadwinner and I suppose you're all wondering if it performed under pressure.

After a longwinded awards season, a palette cleanser in the form of an action-adventure flick is just what one needs to prepare for stacked season of blockbusters. Thankfully, this 2018 reiteration of Tomb Raider proved up to the task! Helmed by Norwegian film director Roar Uthaug with writing credits going to Geneva Robertson-Dworet, Alastair Siddons, and Evan Daugherty, this incarnation serves as both an adaptation of the 2013 video game reboot and a reboot of the Angelina Jolie led Lara Croft: Tomb Raider series from the early 2000s. Talk about rebootception!

Even though I admittedly didn't have the highest of expectations for Tomb Raider due to never having played the game, Uthaug cleared the bar for me and delivered on the exciting action-adventure film I felt the trailers promised. Despite the unpracticality of the film's physics, there was a sense that the stakes were high and characters were vulnerable thanks to the intensity of the action. In the moment, you truly believed Lara could die at any minute because of the suspenseful situations she found herself in. Indiana Jones, The Mummy (1999), and National Treasure all come to mind as comparable franchises in terms of high stakes, enjoyable archeological action-adventure.

Again, while I haven't played the game, a lot of the situations seemed as though they were translating game mechanics anytime Lara solved a puzzle or escaped a perilous predicament, and I found that to only enhance the adventure aspect of things. In truth, this film had just about everything I wanted last year's reboot of The Mummy to deliver on. 

On the flipside, the CGI was wildly inconsistent. There were certain moments with noticeable green screen (as seen above) and others you'd hardly consider to have been altered by a computer. It simply varied from occasion to occasion as is often the case with visual effects in these modern big budget bonanzas. 

Of course, Tomb Raider carries the burden of some pacing problems and uneven storytelling that will leave the viewer to occasionally question why characters didn't simply act another way or do something else to get out of a troubling dilemma. On top of that, the story itself isn't all too original so some story beats come across as genre tropes or cliché in your mind. However, none of this ever compromised the film as a whole and the origin story elements were handled quite well as it's easy to see how Lara went from Point A to Point B when all is said-and-done. In fact, I was able to invest myself in Lara as a character quite quickly largely thanks to Alicia Vikander's strong showing. 

If there was one hurdle this production had to get over above all else, it was the recasting of Lara Croft. While I wouldn't say Jolie's take on the character is quite iconic, audiences are more familiar with that over-sexualized version and the video game itself. As the promotional material for the film made its way online, an unfortunate issue of body shaming across the internet arose that ranged from making fun of the actress' neck to her bust size... Ridiculous... I know. Thankfully, enough internet users stood up to the plate and repelled the criticism quite maturely. 

Anyways, Vikander proves to be more than up to the task of shutting down toxic fans with her committed performance. She not only underwent the necessary training and dieting to properly portray the character's athletic physicality, but took things a step further by performing a number of the stunts herself. Of course, that's all meaningless if she couldn't act... But this is an Academy Award winning actress we're taking about, and Vikander dedicates herself physically, mentally, and emotionally to the role. All in all, Vikander imbues Lara Croft with the proper balance of determination, intelligence, skill, and emotional weight to come out on top as a capable, yet vulnerable female heroine whose abilities are a bit more tempered and realistic than those of the superheroes currently dominating the cinema screens.

As an antagonist, Walton Goggins' Mathias Vogel comes across as a menacing in large part to some great acting from Goggins, but is ultimately underserved by the screenplay to be little more than a two-dimensional baddie on paper. In the ranks of supporting cast members, Dominic West and Daniel Wu do well with their sizable roles and are mostly responsible for the film's comedic and emotional beats where they each are able to excel.

While not quite the game changer many were hoping for, Tomb Raider is a step in the right direction for video game movies. Warner Bros. and Metro Goldwyn Meyer have excavated a forgotten franchise and revitalized it to be one brimming with plenty of exciting possibilities. Under the right guidance, I hope they raid this tomb for all its worth!

Film Assessment: B