I can’t think of a better video game movie than the latest Tomb Raider, which isn’t saying much, because this latest cinematic adaptation of the action/adventure game is mediocre at best. But hey, compared to the projectile vomit-inducing filmography of Uwe Boll, it’s a chef-d’oeuvre.

For all you video game fanatics out there, this Roar Uthaug film is based, with incredible visual faithfulness, on the 2013 award-winning video game reboot where Lara Croft was re-imagined in a grittier manner.

From a more realistic chest size to a more multidimensional characterisation, to a more grounded world she inhabited (where her endurance and her ability to absorb emotional and physical pressure were tested) this Lara Croft was rebuilt from the ground up in a post-Bourne Identity (2002), post-Batman Begins (2005), post-Casino Royale (2006) world where audiences had developed a taste for believability.

And in those terms, Tomb Raider often succeeds, perhaps to a fault. After Lara Croft (Alicia Vikander) reaches a mysterious island in the Devil’s Sea following the clues left behind by her father, she encounters a murky terrorist organisation called Trinity and takes on their thugs while exploring the jungle to find the clues of a tomb that has the power to destroy civilisation. Here, she takes a lot of punishment, which initially helps with the immersion, but then begins to grow tiresome.

For the most part, Tomb Raider comes across as an underwhelming film

While this second half of Tomb Raider has its moments, for the most part it comes across as underwhelming, largely because of the mediocre quality of the special effects and dull villains. As I said, in terms of art direction, I enjoyed how much the film looked like the video game. I just wish the CGI didn’t also look like it was from a five-year-old console title. Although some of the computer-generated sequences are visually impressive, just as many of them seem to have been constructed on a low-budget.

But the biggest failure here is the characterisation of Lara Croft herself. It feels strange to say this, considering the nature of the two mediums, but the cinematic version of Lara Croft is more one-dimensional than her video game counterpart from 2013. In Tomb Raider, she is often defined by the amount of violence she can sustain alone rather than her intellect and her passion for archeology.

Meanwhile, the amount of tomb-raiding and puzzle-solving she does is inadequate. Granted, this is the first film in a new franchise and early days for the character, but her inquisitive nature doesn’t shine through as brightly as it should have.

But the biggest failure here is the characterisation of Lara Croft herself. It feels strange to say this, considering the nature of the two mediums, but the cinematic version of Lara Croft is more one-dimensional than her video game counterpart from 2013.

That being said, the Academy Award-winning Alicia Vikander makes for a fantastic Lara Croft. She wholeheartedly embraces the Rambo aspect of her character that the writers seemed to have been in love with, and gives all the charisma, intensity and vulnerability that the role requires.

She is particularly fun in the first half of the film where we see Lara Croft working as a bike messenger and taking MMA classes before learning that her wealthy father was more than who she thought. It’s a pity that the film falters when it comes to the actual raiding of tombs.  

Rated PG-13 for sequences of violence and action, and for some language

Published in Dawn, ICON, March 25th, 2018