Tomb Raider

This review may contain spoilers!

This is yet another video game film which, as can be expected, falls under the all too familiar video game film curse. I would give Tomb Raider a 4/10.

The cinematography throughout is very impactful; urban landscapes look as brilliant as desolate islands and underground tombs. The camera work especially knows how to capture fast-paced motion and the editing compliments these sudden transitions into swift action. The fight choreography and chase sequences were the real leading points of the entire feature, every fight was slick and moved at such a fluid pace that the moments of action really distracted you from the low points within the narrative. The score for the film hits a high beat in all the right places, and the descent into the tomb is made to feel very tense and eerie due to the musical accompaniment.

Walton Goggins, who played Mathias Vogel, is an exceptional standout as the antagonist of the film; he manages to pitch some calm, entertaining banter in some scenes while unveiling a silent, threatening persona in other key moments.

However, the best performance came from Alicia Vikander, who played Lara Croft. Vikander really succeeds at capturing the essence of this famous character, her daring and sometimes reckless spirit made her a protagonist worth watching. This is a stubborn character, who sets a goal and moves towards it with a relentless energy until she either completes what she sets out to do or collapses from exhaustion. Vikander is natural as this completely intellectual and instinctual problem-solver. This is a compassionate Lara Croft, driven by her heart and her connection to her family.

This is a very formulaic narrative, a film in which a wayward child chance upon their parent's secret life and stumbles into being even better at it than they were. Tomb Raider doesn't do a thing to try and stray from this format at all, in fact, it shamelessly follows it to the letter to the point that each scene is pretty predictable. Outside of Lara Croft, a lot of the characters are very melodramatic with many hamming up their personas or playing to a stereotype. The film takes a long time to get underway which sets a slow pace; things pick up when we finally get to the tomb but the ending falls flat. Making the big revelation around a plague/poorly presented zombie choice was a poor choice and the sequel set up following that was poorly executed.

Dominic West, who played Lord Richard Croft, really goes fully over the top melodrama with this role; West pours such an overwhelming flood of emotions into scenes that you don't really buy into the person he's presenting. Daniel Wu, who played Lu Ren, seems comfortable playing a fairly stereotypical rogue with a heart of gold; Wu's character goes through huge strides of sudden development throughout this film that seems to serve the progression of the story more purpose than the actual character himself. Kristin Scott Thomas, who played Ana Miller, isn't even remotely subtle as the 'big twist' villain; Thomas approaches her role with a very obvious blunt coldness that earns her character little empathy or interest from the start. Derek Jacobi, who played Mr Yaffe, is absolutely wasted in this film; Jacobi, as a confused lawyer shoved into the background, would have made for a far better villain than Thomas' role for the surprise reveal. Jaime Winstone and Nick Frost, who played Pamela and Max respectively, have no real reason to be in this film and are incredibly off tone moments in the story; this duo really pushes a comedic dynamic in a narrative that really doesn't evidence humour all that often or well.