{"id":5207,"date":"2018-03-16T06:13:35","date_gmt":"2018-03-16T13:13:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=5207"},"modified":"2018-03-16T12:35:25","modified_gmt":"2018-03-16T19:35:25","slug":"review-tomb-raider","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=5207","title":{"rendered":"Review: TOMB RAIDER"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once again, with the reboot of \u201cTomb Raider,\u201d we are reminded that video games are meant to be played not necessarily watched. And with all due respect to the fine writers of blockbuster games, they\u2019re written to enhance the playing experience, not to passively entertain. Playing first, watching is likely the afterthought.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cTomb Raider (2018)\u201d is an unsophisticated movie that fails to translate the game\u2019s key interactive elements in an engaging, cinematic way.<\/p>\n

\"\"The story here couldn\u2019t be more clich\u00e9d. We meet Lara Croft (Oscar winner Alicia Vikander) as she dukes it out with another tough muscular gal in a private MMA style contest. Spoiler, Lara loses. But after receiving numerous blows, she emerges from the bout clear-headed without a bruise and nary a scratch. After an juicy red apple for energy, off she goes to her day job delivering hot curry on a bike. Why? Because she has rejected her blue-blood upbringing in order to get an education on the dangerous streets of London. Dangerous, that is, if you ride a bike delivering warm samosas and flavorful vindaloo.<\/p>\n

Of course, we get a little back-story. Lara\u2019s father, Lord Richard Croft (Dominic West), disappeared years ago. He left to pursue an archeological treasure. Now Lord Croft\u2019s presumed dead, but Lara won\u2019t sign the paperwork that will essentially declare him deceased. The Croft company has been managed for years by the motherly Ana Miller (Kristin Scott Thomas), who encourages Lara to take advantage of her fortune. Lara\u2019s mother died when she was very young, although we aren\u2019t given any details to speak of.<\/p>\n

After a lackluster introduction that fails to convincingly explain why Lara would live her life as a bike messenger, she discovers her father\u2019s hidden lair. This leads her to Hong Kong in hopes of finding the remote island on which Lord Croft may have met his end. And in Hong Kong, in a contrived \u201cmeet-cute\u201d she encounters a drunken sea captain named Lu Ren (Daniel Wu), who agrees to take her to the mysterious island.<\/p>\n

A rather pedantic affair, \u201cTomb Raider\u201d has very little energy. Surprisingly, the talented Vikander lacks much needed charisma in the hero role. This is largely because the story is an odd, uneven mix of fantasy and gritty action. It\u2019s a combination that does not coalesce\u2014the fantasy elements undercut the gritty action sequences. \u201cTomb Raider\u201d visually looks something like \u201cJack Reacher\u201d but teases us that it\u2019s protagonist has superhero potential.<\/p>\n

For example, once on the island, Lara discovers a group of heavily armed mercenaries led by Mathias Vogel (Walton Goggins), who is exploiting slave laborers. The slave labor arrangement makes little sense, as the search for a valuable tomb is haphazardly conducted. Skilled paid laborers with high tech gear would likely be more successful and much more interesting.<\/p>\n

Instead, the lazy script assembles a faceless group of exploited and hapless souls (of Asian descent), who merely act as expendable plot devices. They get in the way and clumsily take a bullet when a lead actor needs cover. And it isn\u2019t until the 98 pound, white gal joins them that the idea of fighting back comes into the picture.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all a bit ethnocentric 1980s, as the condescending, manipulative screenplay, which is the product of three writers, feels a little exploitative as it tacks on a weak uprising narrative clearly meant to widen the appeal of the film in certain parts of the world. I would rather have seen a few more fully developed characters that have something meaningful to say instead of just the perfunctory collection of sweaty warm bodies.<\/p>\n

And the mercenaries also get the formula treatment. They are the most incompetent group of villains on screen in years. While they are armed-to-the-teeth with high-powered machine guns equipped with grenade launchers and scopes, they hold the weapons like they\u2019ve never fired them and can\u2019t seem to hit the broad side of a barn. Of course, at times, they\u2019re gun sights have no problem finding a poor unidentified slave laborer when Lara is on the run. It\u2019s laughable when Lara arms herself with a creaky bow and arrow and is much more accurate than any of the hired gunmen.<\/p>\n

Sadly, \u201cTomb Raider\u201d is no franchise starter. And while Vikander has the acting chops and certainly looks the part, the entire approach is wrong-headed. If \u201cJumanji: Welcome to the Jungle\u201d has proved anything, keeping the game in the movie can work. And unlike that monster success, \u201cTomb Raider\u201d is based on an actual video game, with hoards of fans that probably wouldn\u2019t mind seeing some of the gameplay represented directly on the screen.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s face it, the reason the game \u201cTomb Raider\u201d has been successful over the years is because you play it, not because you passively watch it and engage emotionally in the story-line created around the game elements. \u201cTomb Raider\u201d is another expensive attempt to translate a video game to the big screen that woefully misses its target.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Perfunctory film shakes the game and the fun out of the Lara Croft story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[118,123,120,50,18,121,117,122,119],"class_list":["post-5207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-alicia-vikander","tag-dominic-west","tag-kristin-scott-thomas","tag-movie-review","tag-movies","tag-review","tag-tomb-raider","tag-video-games","tag-walton-goggins","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5207"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5223,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5207\/revisions\/5223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}