Here's what you need to know; it's been seven years since her father mysteriously disappeared, and now Lara Croft finally wishes to seek closure, however that isn't what she finds upon inheriting her father's wealth and mansion. Instead she finds a trail of breadcrumbs leading to a perilous island, a sinister organisation, and an ancient, apocalyptic threat, a threat that forces Lara to fight for survival and put a stop to Trinity's tomb raiding before they have the chance to end the world.
Ever since I became a gamer, I've been a fan of the Tomb Raider games, particularly spending possibly too much of my time playing Tomb Raider Anniversary on the PSP and Underworld on the Xbox 360. Fast forward a few years and Tomb Raider got the Dark Knight treatment with a 'dark' reboot that was violent, unforgiving, and for the most part, fantastic, it recreated Lara Croft in a way that I really enjoyed, and I eagerly await the coming third instalment in the reboot series. What I haven't been a fan of however is Tomb Raider in film; I remember little of the previous two films, but I remember not liking them, and I never liked Angelina Jolie in the role, yes, I guess I'm crazy like that, because everyone else seemed to. But this Tomb Raider's different; this time it's Alicia Vikander in the role, and it's taking influence from the Tomb Raider reboot series, and the marketing was actually pretty good, so who knows, maybe this one will be good.
Right away this film hit me with the Deja Vu, giving us a bunch of prologuey stuff about Himiko, a Japanese Queen who lived forever and spread death by her very touch, but then the film throws in Trinity, who want to find Himiko's power and rule the world with it, confirming what I already knew, that this was a blending of the two existing games in the reboot series. Alicia Vikander is easily the film's greatest strength, because she's awesome in this role. The film borrows from the game in having her not be the Tomb Raider at first, in fact she's not really anything; the film establishes her cunning and skills in archery, which are useful later, but she doesn't live in a mansion despite being legally entitled to one, she works as a courier, and has yet to raid even a single tomb. Strangely the film doesn't need to put her on the island to be interesting, as she spends easily the first third of the film playing Fox Hunt, finding hidden rooms and hunting down a possible link to her father in Hong Kong. As the film progresses she obviously gets more development, and it keeps borrowing very heavily from the game; with her first kill being a very pivotal point in the story, and her evolution from nobody bike delivery girl to world saving Tomb Raider is a fun ride to watch. Interestingly the film doesn't have a very big line up of supporting characters; there's her drunken Captain friend; Lu Ren who gets enslaved by Trinity and spearheads their liberation and escape, there's the villain; Mathias, who shares a name with the villain from the first game, but nothing else, Richard Croft, who the film portrays has having lost his mind while researching Himiko, and that's pretty much it. There's smaller roles filled by the likes of Nick Frost and Kristin Scott Thomas, but their presence is very minimal. The film's villain was interesting at first, being an underling for Trinity who takes orders from a satellite phone and has completely lost touch with his humanity in his time on the Island, but he isn't really given much to do even when the tomb is finally opened, and his villainous intentions are disappointingly weak, as you realise that he's just a grunt, and Trinity, the film's true villain, is only ever alluded to, and never explicitly shown, which builds intrigue, but leaves Mathias in the shade.
Something that really twisted my brain was how faithfully it adheres to the games, while also making some substantial changes. The film is a very stripped back, summarised retelling of the first game, with the addition of swapping out the cult from the first game with Trinity from the second. Changes like that, Richard Croft's fate, and what's in the tomb, are changes I can understand somewhat, with probably a majority of movie goers only being aware of Tomb Raider through the previous two films and the basic knowledge that it's also a video game. It was different when they finally opened the tomb, because the film takes a departure from the game in that regard, the supernatural element of the game has been completely removed, and replaced by something that, while more realistic, is less intriguing, and I'd even say less creepy. Another change is how much time Lara spends off the island, though this is a good change, as it gives more time and opportunity to set up the characters and story, which it does, as well as giving us a few fun chases through Hong Kong and London. What I also understand, but am annoyed by, is that while the games are slapped with a PEGI 18 rating in my satire of a country, the film adaptation, like Assassin's Creed before it, is a 12, with the obvious goal of making the film as accessible to a mass audience as possible. The huge problem here is that concessions had to be made to give the film that rating; moments from the game like Lara's first kill and her first injury are in this film; but they've been made significantly safer; for instance they swapped out the metal spike and burning arrow from the game with a splinter and sowing kit, and her first kill, while still being a significant moment in the story and in her development, is nowhere near as graphic or psychologically disturbing as it was in the game. Part of what made those games so memorable was how badly Lara got the shit kicked out of her in them, and that brutality has been dialled back massively to accommodate that safer rating, so no cannibalism, torture, and implicit and explicit evocation of violation, for the kids.
The film has flaws, this is true of all films, most prominently in my mind being Pacific Rim: Uprising, but Tomb Raider is decent enough in the story department, sticking tightly to the game while making the odd positive addition and negative omission. But outside of the story and characters, which is impressively strong for a video game movie, the film's most glaring issues are pacing and presentation. Let's start with pacing, because there are times where the film slows down. Before she reaches the island, things are moving at a snappy pace, with some chases to keep the audience interested, while setting up Lara's character and the ominous Trinity quite well. Then she reaches the island and things slow down, this pace makes sense in the game, which also started slowly, with Lara having to hunt for food and fend off the dangers of the Island. But that isn't in this film, so the change in pace is hard to justify. There are moments when the pace works, like the handful of action sequences, including a sequence ripped straight from the game where she narrowly escapes death in a wrecked plane. But where the pacing really becomes a problem is the payoff. The film's ending isn't some huge, epic fight with magic and zombie samurai like the game, rather it's far, far more reserved, personally, I liked this, but it has all the workings of an anti-climax, which is bound to leave some viewers underwhelmed. The film struggles with its presentation too, some of the visual effects are great, and some are garbage, there's no nice way of saying it. The scene where Lara gets shipwrecked is an example of the film's great visual effects, while the plane sequence, the one ripped from the game, rather coincidentally, looked like a video game, even little things like blood splatters and explosions could have looked better, a problem that's impossible to ignore once you notice it.
You shouldn't have come here, but I'm glad that you did
Tomb Raider is probably the best video game adaptation ever made, and the painful part is how meaningless that sentence is. It gets an impressively long list of things right; Lara Croft is excellently portrayed by Alicia Vikander, and her character is well developed and likable, as is her dad and her drunken captain friend, though the film then loses some steam with a weak villain. The film suffers from pacing issues once they reach the island, but bigger issues stem from the film's presentation, visual effects, and, for me personally, how the film changes key aspects of the game in order to accommodate a 12 rating when it really should have been a 15, which isn't to say the film doesn't make positive changes, but you have to take the good with the bad, which is a pretty decent way of summarising the film as a whole. I had fun watching Tomb Raider, it wasn't bad, and it's worth watching.
Right away this film hit me with the Deja Vu, giving us a bunch of prologuey stuff about Himiko, a Japanese Queen who lived forever and spread death by her very touch, but then the film throws in Trinity, who want to find Himiko's power and rule the world with it, confirming what I already knew, that this was a blending of the two existing games in the reboot series. Alicia Vikander is easily the film's greatest strength, because she's awesome in this role. The film borrows from the game in having her not be the Tomb Raider at first, in fact she's not really anything; the film establishes her cunning and skills in archery, which are useful later, but she doesn't live in a mansion despite being legally entitled to one, she works as a courier, and has yet to raid even a single tomb. Strangely the film doesn't need to put her on the island to be interesting, as she spends easily the first third of the film playing Fox Hunt, finding hidden rooms and hunting down a possible link to her father in Hong Kong. As the film progresses she obviously gets more development, and it keeps borrowing very heavily from the game; with her first kill being a very pivotal point in the story, and her evolution from nobody bike delivery girl to world saving Tomb Raider is a fun ride to watch. Interestingly the film doesn't have a very big line up of supporting characters; there's her drunken Captain friend; Lu Ren who gets enslaved by Trinity and spearheads their liberation and escape, there's the villain; Mathias, who shares a name with the villain from the first game, but nothing else, Richard Croft, who the film portrays has having lost his mind while researching Himiko, and that's pretty much it. There's smaller roles filled by the likes of Nick Frost and Kristin Scott Thomas, but their presence is very minimal. The film's villain was interesting at first, being an underling for Trinity who takes orders from a satellite phone and has completely lost touch with his humanity in his time on the Island, but he isn't really given much to do even when the tomb is finally opened, and his villainous intentions are disappointingly weak, as you realise that he's just a grunt, and Trinity, the film's true villain, is only ever alluded to, and never explicitly shown, which builds intrigue, but leaves Mathias in the shade. 
No comments:
Post a Comment