OK, sorry its been such a long while since I last posted on here but I'm finally getting round to doing a new post now and it IS a new one!
So, in this post I will be reviewing the latest reboot movie of the Tomb Raider franchise, which surprisingly enough is called Tomb Raider, starring Alicia Vikander in the role as Lara Croft. So, how does Alicia and the film fair in comparison to the poor Angelina Jolie flicks almost 20 years ago?? Well, let's take a look!
And yep as usual there will be the usual warning...
PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!
STORY
So, the story begins with Lara Croft (Alicia Vikander) who makes her living as a bike courier and is one day arrested during an illegal bike race on the streets of London. Lara is bailed out by Ana Miller (Kristin Scott Thomas) who is the business partner of her father, Lord Richard Croft (Dominic West) who has been missing for seven years and presumed dead. Ana tells Lara that she must sign papers to claim her father's vastly wealthy inheritence or else it will be sold off to which Lara reluctantly agrees. However during the meeting, Lara is given a box with a puzzle in it, which contains a key and a picture of her as a child with Richard.
Lara then goes off to follow the puzzle and to her father's coffin and finds a secret entrance to a tomb that contains all of her father's work and research. Lara also finds a pre-recorded video message from Richard, warning her that she must destroy all his research as he was working on locating Himiko, the mythical queen of Yamatai, who was said to command power over life and death and if his research fell into the wrong hands this could lead to disaster. Lara however decides instead to follow her father's trail and investigate further.
Lara then travels to Hong Kong where she hires Lu Ren (Daniel Wu) the captain of the ship, Endurance, to travel into the Devil's sea and the island of Yamatai, which Ren reluctantly accepts but warns Lara that journey is extremely dangerous and they could die even attempting to reach the island. During the trip, the ship is caught in a violent storm, which wrecks the boat and Lara and Ren flung into sea and Lara manages ashore but is then knocked unconscious.
On coming around, Lara finds her in a large tent and face to face with Mathias Vogel (Walter Goggins) who is the leader of an expedition to try and find the tomb of Himiko. Vogel also reveals that he was responsible for killing her father and he intends to use his research to continue his expedition. As Vogel has many people held as slaves to excavate the site they are on, he tells them to move camp (as Lara now has the map revealing the location of the tomb from Richard's research). However, Ren, who was also taken captive, creates a diversion to allow Lara to escape from Vogel and she barely survives a series of perils in the process.
And its from here that Lara must try and find a way to defeat Vogel and stop him from finding and opening the tomb of Himiko, which would unleash death and disaster upon the world.
THOUGHTS
As a reboot movie, Tomb Raider actually works quite well and its good to see them take on the gritty route that the newer Tomb Raider games have done so far. However, in a way the film here does a better job at balancing the tone, as the new Tomb Raider games for me have always been way too serious and grim but here in the film, you do have some humour aswell as the drama. The film also makes a nice departure from the idea of Lara being utterly obssessed in following her father's footsteps like she did in the games and instead being more reluctant to do so here as she refuses to live off his wealth and struggle in making her own way.
PERFORMANCES (Warning: I may mention a few scenes here but will keep spoilers to a real minimum)
As for the performances, they are pretty good overall with the cast all pretty solid.
Starting with the film's star, Alicia Vikander, who is does a fine job in taking on the mantle of playing Lara Croft, which is no easy task in itself but here she manages to show Lara's resolve, combat and athletic abilities when it comes to navigating the many dangers infront of her. More importantly Alicia manages to add some humour into the part aswell, which was virtually missing from the new Tomb Raider games but here we get a more playful Lara to start with before things turn a bit more serious during her perilous adventure. Alicia herself also put on 12 pounds of muscle for the role and it sure does show as her physique is pretty solid (and still rather nice!).
I will only mention a few of her scenes such as the one where Lara goes to the meeting where she has to sign the papers to claim her father's inhertience and she has to sign in at the desk. So, the receptionist mistakes her for a courier and says "Courier's round the back" and Lara tells him "But I'm not a courier..." but she realises that is what she does and says "Well, I am!" and the receptionist says "Right, so round the back". Lara then says "I'm here to see Ana Miller" and the receptionist tells her "Well, you've have to sign in like everybody else. What's your name?" and Lara says "Lara" and he asks "Surname?" and Lara says "Croft" and the receptionist looks up in surprise.
Another scene is where Lara and Ren travel on the sea towards Yamatai and at night during a calm night, Ren tells Lara "Enjoy it while you can. We're headed into the most dangerous stretch of water...
between Hong Kong and California. Your dad sure knew how to pick a holiday!". Lara smiles and says "He had a knack for the unexpected, apparently! I wondered if he had gone mad though. He didn't seem to know what was real and wasn't. Obssessing over some ancient Japanese death queen". Ru then says "Hey, some men like dangerous women!" and Lara says "Some men are foolish!" and he asks "What?!" and she walks off "Good night, Lu Ren. Sweet dreams!".
And last of all is that scene, which I won't reveal too much about but you've all most likely seen it in the trailer where Lara goes to buy some guns from a pawn shop owner, Alan (Nick Frost) who just happens to own a pretty impressive stash of weapons! So, Lara holds one of the guns and Alan tells her "I don't know if you've noticed or not, but you can't be too careful these days, because the world has gone bloody mad!". And Alan's partner, Pamela asks Lara re: the gun "You like that?" and Lara says "I do. I'll take two!".
Next up is Dominic West as Richard Croft, Lara's father, who is presumed dead and he does quite well in his role even though he does get to deliver some pretty hackneyed dialogue throughout and rather annoyingly keeps having to say "sprout" as a term of affection for Lara! So, I will refrain from mentioning too much of his dialogue but I will mention one of his scenes where Lara plays back a video tape that Richard made for her.
So, in the video footage, Richard tells Lara "I need you to do me a favor. I need you to burn all my research on the Himiko project. Just burn all of it,the notebooks, the tapes, everything. It's very important. If it falls into the wrong hands, then...it could be catastrophic. So please, do it straight away. I know you hate being told what to do, but, please promise me that. I hope you never have
to see this tape, but if you do...You found my secret calling. I hope you find yours".
Walter Goggins next up is also pretty good as Mathias Vogel, the main villain of the film, who is out to try and locate the tomb of Himiko but doesn't believe any of the superstitions that surround the legends.
And I will mention just one of Walter's scenes here such as the one where Vogel first meets with Lara after she is found washed up on the island, however we all to quickly find out he's not what he appears to be at first.
So, in the scene Vogel refers to Lara bringing her father's research with her to the island (in her backpack) and he says "You have brought me the thing that I most wanted in this world. Thank you!". Lara however looks defiantly and asks "What do you know about my father?" and Vogel smiles and says "Now I see the likeness. The intelligence, the face. The recklessness. All he had to was cooperate, Of course, being Richard he refuse Thought he was saving the world". Lara grows tired and angrily asks "Where is he???!!" and Vogel tells her "He's with God now. I killed him" and Lara reacts with shock and Vogel says "I'm sorry if I was too blunt. I'm a bit out of practice. Its been seven years!".
Daniel Wu is excellent in his role as Lu Ren, the grumpy captain, who reluctantly takes Lara into the hostile island and he provides a fair bit of humour in the film.
And I will mention a couple of his scenes starting with the one where Lara tries to persuade Ren to follow her father's trail. So, in the scene Lara checks her father's maps and locates the island "Its this one!" she says pointing to the island on the map and Ren says to her "That's right in the middle of the Devil's sea! You might aswell tie a stone to yourself and jump off the boat right now!". Lara however, more optimistic, cheerfully says "It will be adventure!" but Ren tells her "Death is NOT an adventure!".
Then there is the scene where Lara and Ren are out at sea enroute to Yamatai and its a calm night and Lara is appreciating the calmness. However Ren tells Lara "Enjoy it while you can. We're headed into the most dangerous stretch of water...between Hong Kong and California. Your dad sure knew how to pick a holiday!". Lara smiles and says "He had a knack for the unexpected, apparently! I wondered if he had gone mad though. He didn't seem to know what was real and wasn't. Obssessing over some ancient Japanese death queen". Ru then says "Hey, some men like dangerous women!" and Lara says "Some men are foolish!" and she walks off.
Kristin Scott Thomas also does well in her rather brief role as Ana Miller, Richard's business associate at Croft Holdings, who isn't all she appears to be in the film at times but she does encourage Lara to take up where her father left off.
And I will mention one of Kristin's scene where Ana bails Lara out of jail and tries to convince her to sign the papers to inherit her father's wealth or else his estate will be sold off and all his money.
So, Ana tells Lara "Just think what you can do for the world...with your potential, with your wealth. Listen, it's very simple. If you don't sign the papers, then everything...your father worked for will be sold off. Not just the company. The Croft manor, also. Can you imagine how he would feel if you lost the house. Lara, your father's gone. But, you can pick up where he left off. It's in your blood". Lara however is reluctant to take her up on the offer and says "I'm just not that kind of Croft".
And last of all is Nick Frost, who is great here as the pawn shop owner, Alan, whom Lara sells her precious amulet that her dad gave her years ago, in order to get money to travel to Hong Kong.
And I will mention one of Nick's scenes where Lara first goes to Alan's shop and tries to barter for the amulet but Alan holds out on her. So, Alan says "I'm pleased to say... we are in a position to make you an offer. Ten!" and Lara pleads "Please. Just a tad bit more? That's all I have to remember my Dad by" and Alan feigns sympathy and says "Oh, your dad died. It's a shame, it's a terrible thing for a young woman to lose her father. Really. Alright fair enough, 9,000!". Lara then, taken aback says "You just said ten!" and Alan says "Well, people come in here, trying that dead dad shit all the time!". Lara tries to plead with him again and Alan says "Right, the price is now 8!" and she sighs and says "OK, you win!". So, Lara frustrated with Alan, hits his glass window and he looks at her and says "For such occassions!" and Lara looks at Alan's coffee cup, which is by the open part of the counter, so she flicks it and lands on his crotch and she says "For such occassions!" and takes her money and leaves.
Well, people come in here, trying that dead dad shit all the time. Read more: https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/movie_script.php?movie=tomb-ra
DIRECTOR AND MUSIC
As for the director, Roar Uthag does a pretty good job here when it comes to directing the action in the film and he paces the film well as it very rarely lags at all and manages to get solid performances from the cast. Uthag is a Norgwegian director so this was his first main English speaking feature (at least I think so!) so its a good effort for a major feature film.
Music wise, Tom Holkenborg provides a decent, if not entirely memorable score for the film, which is still quite suitable in its tone but its not really one I'd take time to sit and listen to on my own with the film on. Holkenborg is better kwown as Junkie XL and he did provide some score work for the DC Extended Universe films aswell. So there you go.
FLAWS (Warning: this section may contain spoilers!)
As for flaws...yep Tomb Raider has some for sure.
For starters it really has to be said that the plot is pretty bland and generic with Lara being put in a position by her father to try and "save the world" from the potential disaster of unleashing Himiko's power on everyone. And while I applaud the idea of Lara being the reluctant hero and being thrown into the situation, its still a rather bland hackneyed plot that she is part of that rather let's the side down.
Another issue is to do with how so many events in the film are coincidence driven, such as when Lara is looking for Lu Ren's boat and asks a few people, she then goes on to have her bag stolen by some local thieves, who she chases and manages to get the bag back from. However, as the thieves corner her on a boat, a gunshot rings out scaring them off and we see that it is infact Ren's boat that Lara has stumbled onto! What a coincidence!
Then there is the scene where Lara attends the meeting to sign the papers that would see her father's inheritence pass over to her, however when she finds the puzzle box presented by an associate at Croft Holdings (Derek Jacobi) its stops her from signing the papers. Then we cut to the next scene where she heads to Richard's estate and to his supposed coffin. Now are we to assume at this point that Lara DIDN'T sign the papers?! Because they totally left that bit out or unexplained, so we just have to guess that she left and wasn't ready to do so yet.
Then of course there are the issues with Lara and the various injuries she sustains in the film and how she actually even manages to survive any of them, especially the one where (SPOILER!) she manages to survive falling out of a derelict plane that was balanced over a ravine and later she finds a shard of metal in her side. Now, you would imagine that its amazing that she somehow didn't bleed out to death before she was able to get any help!
And then we get to Lara's physics defying jumps and somersaults and uncanny knack to avoid traps of all kinds and towards the end of the film she makes a real death defying jump using an ice axe to leap over a crumbling chasm! And of course being Lara she manages to make it just barely but hey of course it is just a film and we have to remember that!
Anyway that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So, to sum up Tomb Raider is a fairly worthy reboot of the franchise that is way better than the mediocre films that Angelina Jolie did over 15 years ago and Alicia Vikander puts in a very solid performance as Lara Croft here and she also looks pretty buff in the role too it has to be said! Alicia also does a good job at showing Lara's emotional vulnerability while also balancing it out with her tough side that would see her go on to become the Tomb Raider.
And yes OK there are some issues with the film here and there and the plot is pretty banal and unoriginal with yet another doom and disaster story and the heroine must save the world etc etc. However if you can look past that then there is still enough here to enjoy in Tomb Raider, even if it isn't perfect, its still worth a look.
Right, so that's it for now and I will be back soon with another post, which might possibly be a review of Dark Souls II, which I have been playing lately, either that or something else.
Anyway till then, its bye fer now!
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