Movie Review: Tomb Raider (2018)
Warning: very minor spoilers follow.
I remember spending many action-packed hours playing the 2013 game reboot of the Tomb Raider series. It was tremendous fun, shooting baddies with my bow and arrow and figuring out the environmental puzzles. It was my first memorable Tomb Raider experience; I had never played the original games, and I barely recall watching the Angelina Jolie movies. So when they announced that they were making a movie reboot of Tomb Raider, I was not sure what to anticipate.
Fast forward to early 2018, and I got the chance to catch a sneak peek with a friend. To my surprise, I was handed 3D spectacles that didn’t sit well over my existing ones. The first few minutes were also rather disorienting as I was trying to get used to the overwhelming stereoscopic effect of the 3D spectacles sitting a bit further away from my eyes than they should be. Tip: just watch this in 2D.
The film opens with a short narration by Lara Croft’s father, Richard Croft, who is recounting the legend of Queen Himiko, and her burial on the island of Yamatai. This was way too familiar; I began to dread that the entire plot of the game was going to be rehashed. It nearly seems to be the case, except for a rather meandering prelude in London where the story establishes Lara Croft (Alicia Vikander) as a fighter, agile cyclist, effortless rememberer of Shakespeare, avid puzzle-solver…basically a fierce, smart, and independent Mary Sue type. Everyone who’s even dimly aware of who Lara Croft is will already expect a strong and capable female character, so I’m not sure why they spent so long dwelling on her urban lifestyle. Especially the cycling. She never cycles on her adventure later on. She does use a bow and arrow on the island, but her archery skills are only alluded to in one brief flashback scene.
Her time in London does set up the basic premise of her father being missing and presumed dead since his ill-fated quest to the island of Yamatai. When she picks up the beginning of a trail of clues left by her father, she decides to follow her father’s footsteps. After a short action-packed diversion via Hong Kong, she is finally on a ship manned by the drunken sailor Lu Ren (Daniel Wu). Cue choppy seas and a thunderstorm wrecking the ship and throwing Lara and Lu Ren on Yamatai, and the viewer finally finds himself at minute zero of the 2013 game.
As the story progressed, I was relieved that while the movie heavily borrowed elements of the 2013 game, it came up with its own plot. And the plot, as far as tomb raiding plots go, is satisfactory. People who’ve played the 2013 game will either groan or chuckle at overt references to the game, like Lara’s bow and arrow, climbing axe, the rope ascender, and a collapsing airplane sequence.
Sometimes, this movie appeared undecided on which version of Lara Croft it wanted to portray, ending up incorporating elements of Lara from the older Legend timeline and the rebooted Survivor timeline rather clumsily. The latter half of the movie, when Lara descends into a cave and has to solve her way out of underground death traps, made me wonder if some out-of-touch studio executive had insisted the script include some semblance to the Lara Croft of Angelina Jolie’s time. This possibility becomes more evident with a scene where Lara decides to buy dual pistols from a pawn shop while wearing her pre-2013 signature braid and turquoise top. I wish they had followed the courageous step of Crystal Dynamics’ rebooted series and just created a new and exciting millennial Lara Croft befitting of 2018.
This movie would have easily been a classic action blockbuster in the 90s. But the prior existence of archaeological adventure movies like Indiana Jones, National Treasure, and Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon movies meant that for a 2018 Tomb Raider movie to stand out, it must break new ground. Unfortunately, the narrative feels paint-by-the-numbers, a mere shadow of the immersive narrative experience of the 2013 game. For a non-gamer, this movie would make a suitable introduction to the Tomb Raider universe. But for someone who has played the game, I just felt like I should have played it again. Lara Croft may solve puzzles with plenty of ease, But Hollywood seems unable to crack open the secret to making an outstanding Tomb Raider movie.
The conclusion clearly sets up the beginning of a potential rebooted Tomb Raider franchise. Despite my mild disappointment with this film, I am looking forward to a sequel. The universe of Tomb Raider has lots of potential for a cinematic experience, and Alicia Vikander is honestly a great choice for Lara Croft. I’ll love to see her again, hopefully in an adventure that dares to diverge from the games and older movies to tell a completely new story.
