Tomb Raider (2018)

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Let's face it. A good video game-based movie is hard to come by. If it's trying to be more like the game, it doesn't translate to screen very well, and if it does it's own thing, it's not close enough to the game. To create a video game movie is always a gamble with a double-edged sword. Unlike a lot of the games these films are based on, you just can't seem to win. However, in my personal opinion, 'Tomb Raider' here seems to have found a happy middle ground, and I'll even gives a bit of hope for the genre.

Based on the game of the same name (the more modern one, anyway), this film brings in a new Lara Croft (Alicia Vikander). As we see things start off, we learn a bit about this new Lara Croft who happens to be a far cry from Angelina Jolie's interpretation. She boxes in her spare time, stays fit, and takes on challenges that test her limits. Namely this is with a "fox hunt", where Lara is on a bike with a tail attached to it, and she is chased through the town of London by other cyclists trying to grab the tail. A neat idea to show off her potential as a badass, but it doesn't entirely fit with the familiarity of 'Tomb Raider'. I did have that twitch early on and assume that the rest of the movie was about to suck. Gladly, I was wrong.

Lara is meant to declare her father dead, after his missing for seven years. She takes what her father leaves her in his will, and it turns out to lead her to a secret room consisting of files and documents on Himiko -  a supernatural Mother of Death that her father chased after with the hopes of bringing his wife, Lara's mother, back to life. Long story short, instead of destroying it all like her father asks in the will, she uses it to try to track him down. Lara then finds herself racing against an organization called Trinity who wants to weaponize Himiko's power. So fairly typical of this type of film. It's always a race.

It's once she reaches the island that the film takes off in a lot of positive ways though. I enjoy that they made Lara fallible here instead of just an automatic badass who knows exactly what she's doing, as the Jolie interpretations would portray. There's a sense of danger, and she gets lucky a LOT of the time. As iffy as this sounds, what that lends itself to all of her cliff-hanging, climbing, running, jumping, trap-avoiding and even puzzle solving that you want to see, translated from the games. 

In the end, this is a new Lara Croft story, with no direct basis on any games, rather than the updated persona. The character is believable as both a video game and movie hero that you can route for, and it's my opinion that some game-based adaptations can come in with this idea in mind. For example, I wouldn't want to see a 'Last of Us' movie because the game is pretty much it's own movie, and it's got a great story behind it that doesn't need to be touched. But, there's no reason a new and different story can't exist from someone else's perspective, still involving the main characters and keeping the spirit of the game in mind... Like 'Last of Us 2' (they really shouldn't make that movie).

It has a bit of a slow start, and a lot of the action sequences are unbelievable as they are. But hey, you can't tell me a lot of the stuff in the game isn't as unbelievable. Just keep in mind this isn't big-breasted, posh badass Lara Croft. This is athletic, brave woman who faces her fears Lara Croft - honestly, the type of Lara I'd prefer. She's a little more humanized here. I probably enjoyed this more than most, but as far as game adaptations go, even if you don't end up loving it, I'd definitely claim it to be one of the better ones.

4/5

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