REVIEW: Tomb RaiderBy Bri ManzanoMarch 17, 2018After a particularly long day of couriering across London’s streets, Lara Croft (Alicia Vikander) is handed the opportunity to receive her father’s (Dominic West) massive inheritance. All she has to do is declare him legally dead - something she has refused to do in the five years since authorities stopped looking for him. She is also handed a puzzle which leads her straight to clues about her father’s disappearance, and can’t resist the call of closure.

Alicia Vikander is an incredible Lara Croft. Of course, she’s an incredible whomever she decides to portray, but for the sake of this review, her Lara Croft carries the film. The film isn’t that much of a burden, though, because it’s no juggernaut of cinema. But it is a decent action flick, and the fact that I can say that about a video game adaptation is a huge deal.

Vikander, as noted, is the main tentpole of Tomb Raider. There is a stunningly subtlety to her performance when the script calls for it. Her inflection and pacing give more to the role than may have originally been there. Her Lara feels not only like a real heroine, but a real person, and one I can’t wait to see develop further in later installments.

Oh, yes, believe me, there will be further installments if it does well enough at the box office. The villainous organization Trinity is specifically kept underdeveloped in order to be explored in later films, making for a diluted threat in Lara’s first outing in the franchise. Perhaps there will be more of a payoff later, but it didn’t work well for Tomb Raider. (Personally, I feel the movie is more about Lara and her father than it is about her attempt to halt the progress of the villain, so I think this lackluster antagonist is excusable, but it’s still noteworthy.)

The script also suffers from a large amount of action-adventure tropes, making it only exciting to watch for the first half or two-thirds. After that point, it feels like a strange Frankenstein’s monster of Indiana Jones and The Hunger Games with a bit of The Walking Dead and The Mummy (2017) thrown in there near the end. It just feels like I’ve seen it all before.

But the fact that I can say the word “decent” anywhere near a video game adaptation is a sign that the industry is headed in the right direction. The writing has a way to go before it’s Shakespearean, but I’m willing to see it through if it means I get a decent Portal film before I die.

Rating: 6.75/10
Favorite scene: Alicia Vikander.
Least favorite scene: Why would you cut off the circulation in your arm if you’re not going to cut it off?

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