Let me start by saying that I have never played a Tomb Raider game, nor have I seen the Angelina Jolie films. That lack of experience with the franchise did not matter at all as I had a really good time with this film.
Seven years after the death of her father, Lara Croft finds his studies of an uninhabited island off the coast of Japan which houses a tomb of an ancient being. With the aid of a boat captain, she journeys to the island looking to find out the truth of her father's mysterious death. Upon reaching the island she is met by Vogel, a man looking to find the tomb and its secrets to expose them to the world.
Croft is played by the incredible Alicia Vikander. While this script is by no means incredible Vikander manages to give a believable and compelling performance. This isn't her best work by any means as she has delivered some brilliant performances, but it is easy to latch on to her as the protagonist. Opposite Vikander is Walton Goggins as Vogel. This is a quite solid villain, his motives are made clear and Goggins puts in the work to make you see his side of the ordeal. He is also really menacing at some points, and works really well against Vikander. Dominic West plays Lara's father, and acts as a driving force through much of the film, and that works well thanks in part to a great performance by West. Beyond those three the acting gets a lil muddy. The boat captain that helps Croft is played by Daniel Wu. Wu's character is really fun, can't say his acting is great though. His delivery is at times just silly and while he is fun it just doesn't work. The same can be said for pretty much every extra in the film.
Story wise nothing special is happening here. This is a pretty basic adventure movie, with a lot of similarities to the Indiana Jones films, or The Mummy franchise. While that leaves me wanting more I can't lie, I had a blast with the adventure of this, and it made me nostalgic for those adventure gems I love. The script at times is waaaaaay too cheesy, so if you like corny one liners you'll have a blast here. There's also the issue of Croft being sort of a Mary Sue, seemingly getting abilities out of nowhere. She does a lot of things that are not built up to at all, and for a lot of the film it feels like the element of luck is just as much of a protagonist as Croft, with bullets narrowly missing her and set pieces showing up seemingly to save the day. The action for the most part is quite good. There are some scenes that are a bit too choppy for my liking, but a lot of the fighting is really well choreographed and some of it feels pretty real. I also appreciated that Croft wasn't one of those action heroes that magically healed every two minutes. She would get back up from hits a lot quicker than the average person but you could clearly see the sweat, scrapes, dirt, and blood building up throughout the film. I also must say, there are some really awesome shots in this film. Slow-mo shots are pretty cheesy but also look great and the set design helps add to how great everything in the film looks.
So this movie has clear issues, there's no denying that, but it is such a great time. It is a fun adventure with an exciting hero and cheesy but fun dialogue. I can definitely recommend this to people because sometimes we all just need a little fun in our lives. This movie seemingly acts to provide a fun action/adventure and set up a potential action franchise with its new lead, and I'm eagerly anticipating the next chapter so it did its job.
Rating: 3.2/5
Written by Matt McKenzie
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