Movie Review: Tomb Raider (2018)

Loosely based on the 2013 reboot of the video game series of the same name, Tomb Raider is a 2018 action-adventure movie directed by Roar Uthaug (who, in a note unrelated to the movie itself, has a fantastic video game villain name). Alicia Vikander (The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Jason Bourne) is Lara Croft, the daughter of famous adventurer Lord Richard Croft (Dominic West), the latter of which is presumed dead after traveling to a mysterious island in search of an ancient Chinese Queen. Walton Goggins (Justified‘s Boyd Crowder) is Mathias Vogul, a mercenary opposed to Lara, and Daniel Wu (Warcraft, Into the Badlands) also joins as Lu Ren, an alcoholic ship captain Lara enlists in her journey.

+ aside from the obvious physical differences, I had no issues at all with Vikander’s portrayal Lara Croft. SInce the movie was based on the games, of course she wasn’t an ass-kicking murder machine (at the beginning, at least), and I enjoyed her transformation through the movie
+ Goggins’ antagonist was a large departure from the same character from the 2013 game, but I still enjoyed him. I truly believe Goggins in Justified is one of the best anti-heroes you’ll ever get, so I liked how much more of an obvious bad guy he was here. Wu as Ren was somewhat underutilied, but at no point was he bad in his role
+ there’s some good action, some lifted almost entirely out of the games, including one single-shot sequence that looked as if it was attempting to mimic the third-person camera of the games. It is hardly anything new, especially for a video game adaption, but it’s still pleasing to watch

– since this movie was based on the game, there are a few things that were missing, or that don’t make sense unless you’ve played the games. The plot alterations were neither good or bad, necessarily, but I personally preferred the game story

Should you see this film: Let’s cut right to the chase: I like game-Lara’s boobs. But I also liked this movie, because it treated Lara as more than just the orbs on her chest. The action was gritty, the plot had some twists and turns and in general, it sets up a sequel surprisingly well, even if there is some confusing inclusions. This was a perfectly fine movie.