Synopsis: Lara Croft is the fiercely independent daughter of an eccentric adventurer who vanished years earlier. Hoping to solve the mystery of her father’s disappearance, Croft embarks on a perilous journey to his last-known destination — a fabled tomb on a mythical island that might be somewhere off the coast of Japan. The stakes couldn’t be higher as Lara must rely on her sharp mind, blind faith and stubborn spirit to venture into the unknown. (Google)
Cast: Alicia Vikander, Dominic West, Walton Goggins, Daniel Wu, Kristin Scott Thomas
Screenplay: Geneva Robertson-Dworet, Alastair Siddons
Directed by: Roar Uthaug

All the information I know about Lara Croft, I got it from the 2001 film, the Angelina Jolie starred LARA CROFT: TOMB RAIDER (and its 2004 sequel). I’m clearly not a gamer, so I’m only going to judge the reboot film, TOMB RIDER solely as its own medium.

Directed by Roar Uthaug, a Norwegian director in his Hollywood feature debut, this rebooted version of the female heroine felt exceptionally more grounded. Far cry from the 2001 film, Alicia Vikander’s version of Lara Croft is not as skilled in combat/fighting and not equipped with high tech gadgets…yet. Since in the film they hinted future entries for this planned franchise.

One of the highlights from the film was some of its breathtaking action set piece, especially the shipwreck and the plane wreckage scenes. CMIIW, some of them were based on the actual game, and sometimes clearly felt like obvious ‘rip-off’. But it didn’t make them any less cinematic.
There were some good laughs thrown into an otherwise mediocre script, but it’s refreshing to see a male sidekick who didn’t steal any spotlight from the lead in Daniel Wu’s Lu Ren character, yet not posing as a token character either.

Though it’s far and away a better film than the ‘original’, TOMB RAIDER still suffers from cliche plot points and sometimes illogical motives from the characters. But for its mindless entertainment value, it succesfully delivers them. Historical, globe-trotting adventure films have always been my guilty pleasure anyway and I had a great time watching it. Alicia Vikander held her own to bring us a breath of fresh air into the character. Though still needs some polishing, she did a pretty good job at it. [B-/C+]

A copy of my review on Instagram.