Did we really need an origin story for the Tomb Raider franchise? The two previous movies based on the popular video game had Angelina Jolie as a buxom, sexy Laura. This time we have the lean, petite Swedish Oscar Winner Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl, Ex Machina) in the starring role playing a smart, curious, but stubborn 26-year-old with a punch. Wearing the same T-shirt for practically the whole movie which barely gets torn, she takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’.
This film has more CG effects than the original video game, but you won’t get the same gratification. It reminded us a lot of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom along with other movies and video games. The story is not very exciting, but some of the stunts Vikander pulls off, are.
Laura is a courier who will not accept that her scientist father, Lord Richard Croft (Dominic West), is dead. Flashbacks show how he left 7 years ago on a mysterious research mission never to be heard from again. Laura is hell bent on finding him. Her mother died when she was very young and left a jade necklace that serves a purpose but doesn’t make sense either.
Lara stands to gain the family fortune if she’ll sign papers certifying his passing, urged by guardian/executor, Ella, (Kristen Scott Thomas). But a secret room at the family estate reveals the clues to his mission to find the mysterious Tomb of Himiko and Lara is hell bent to find out what happened to him before signing the papers.
Vikander played the Tomb Raider herself in her youth. She trained hard for this part and did most of her own stunts. After the first three weeks, she was “crippled.” She spent much of the shoot drenched. Hands tied, she was thrown into raging rapids 50 times for one dramatic scene where it wasn’t acting as much as reacting. She’s very slight and some of the beating she takes in the movie should have had her down for the count.
Her hanging from a rusted out WWII bomber over a huge waterfall was a literal cliff hanger. But being able to salvage an old parachute filled with holes to escape was ridiculous, even though the shot with perspective from her POV (point of view) looking up made it a little more interesting.
This is Director Roar Uthaug’s (The Wave) first English-language film. He has Laura running and fighting from the get go. She is battered and bruised throughout but keeps going back for more. The best chase scene in the movie comes early on when she tries to find the man who took her father by boat to the island where the Tomb of Himiko is to be found. She’s mugged by three kids who steal her back pack and it’s a race through shops, restaurants, boats and over piers to get it back. It’s well staged.
Lara finds Lu Ren, on his father’s boat which took her father to the island. They get shipwrecked ending up on the island forging into the jungle where the chase continues with bad guys looking for the Tomb, too, led by Mathias Vogel (Walton Goggins, Lincoln, The hateful Eight). Goggins makes a great villain who tortures slave labor to keep digging to find the tomb. Laura is key to not only finding but getting inside.
The clues leading to their progression are interesting Japanese puzzles her father taught her, but we don’t see the first one until over an hour into the film. She finds Dad on the island and they are forced by Vogel open the tomb, much to the dismay of Dad who is afraid the curse of Himiko will destroy them all and he’s trying to keep Vogel who represents Trinity from getting into it. This is where it gets more like Indiana Jones.
The sets inside are massive but so dark, you can barely see what’s there. And when you do, the action is so dumb, it just doesn’t make sense. The story line doesn’t work well. She’s no hero, but she does survive. And, of course, there’s a set up for the sequel. This film is supposed to be magical and mystical and scary. We didn’t find it so. Lara Croft may be adolescent boy game player’s dream, but this movie is more of a nightmare.
Warner Bros. 1 hour 58 minutes PG-13
