PLEASANTLY SURPRISED. Honestly. Lara Croft is back, Alicia Vikander stars as daughter of missing adventurer who ends up on the island where he had disappeared.
Video game adaptations have a certain stigma, of course they do. There's some great games with some great stories but they're playable. The characters are empty so you can play them. This is why if you think about Jolie's performance, chances are you remember her look (and her accent) but not so much who the character is. Tomb Raider (2018) does surprisingly well in making her an actual person and not just a pair of pointy boobs running around in a forest. Vikander is great, as expected, the Swedish actress already has one Oscar under her belt. Though more of an action role than she has played before she was believably strong, great physique and showed determination.
The action is good if you include chase scenes, if you take them out then there's not really any action left. There's 3 main chase scenes, in London, in Japan and in the jungle on the island. Different terrain different reasoning but all well shot and paced. Though the film itself was still quite long. The cinematography was decent though it did have the luxury of having some great looking locations. You notice in a few scenes they do emulate the perspective of a video game, following closely behind Lara as she shoots and runs and ducks from cover. The 3D is not terrible. Same as a lot of more recent 3D movies, nice touch for standard shots, well composed rooms etc, adding depth. Not the cleanest thing, definitely had some stereotypical video game cutaway shots but of course it did. Sound wasn't anything to write home about, was alright, nice to have some actual songs and not just a score.
As I said Vikander was great, the younger verisons of Lara aren't quite as good but they each don the french plait in tribute to how we see Croft in most cases. No spoilers but there's a particular scene of her in the rain where she has a fight with someone on the island that is great. Her reaction shows how far she's come from the start of the film and not just how she's changed but that she's surprised by the change as well. It was handled well. Daniel Wu looks great as Lu Ren, drunk captain that helps Lara on and off the island in Japan. I'd keep an eye out for him, he's fun to watch, it would be great to see what he could do with a role that had a more realistically fleshed out arc. For the most part that was the issue, how real some things were, most of which you have to leave at the door anyway because it's fictional, so come on. There isn't too much disbelief. Walton Goggins is a somewhat believable villain who, to be honest, has an interesting enough story to tell alone. We don't see how his character comes to be we just get the end result which is a bit of a shame but isn't necessary for the film so understandable.
The mystery aspect to it was fun, it's easy to forget that that is how games work, it's a giant puzzle with puzzles in the middle. It's been a while since I've watched something similar, especially with a strong female lead. To be fair the film does well to leave most of the iconic imagery from the previous films alone. And the times we do see what we're used to is at the end of the film, which makes perfect sense, let's us get to know this Croft without the pretense first then hit those I guess satisfying points. Ends with the assumption for a second and potentially third installment though I'm not sure whether these would follow the game cannon or manage to justify it's own original work.
If you a fan you're already gonna watch it, if you're on the fence I'd definitely try it. Is it long, yes. Does it completely redeem video game adaptations? No, not quite, but it's definitely a step in the right direction. 6/10
CINEMATES - A
