Tomb Raider (2018)

For the past several years Hollywood have been releasing ‘make or break’ films for the videogame movie genre. ‘Assassin’s Creed’ and ‘Warcraft’ were both supposed to be major hits and with such talent behind them the results are rather disappointing. Then comes ‘Tomb Raider’. And it has done exactly the same as the others. It’s received a middling to low critics’ response and it hasn’t exactly broken the box office either. Yet again the video game movie has failed. But is ‘Tomb Raider’ really all that bad? Well, I don’t think so.

Firstly, as an action film, it works flawlessly. It’s creative with its puzzles that feel ripped right out of an escape room. It has some exhilarating dialogue-less sequences that have Lara seemingly on the brink of death and true sense of grit really ties the whole thing up nicely. Whilst never truly felt Lara was actually going to die, I never stopped thinking how painful each fall or punch may be. This film is brutal. Every hand-to-hand fight is visceral with some decent camera work but excellent choreography. Some fantastic sound design helps immensely. Often in these films, the protagonist will stay miraculously clean and their hair will look like they just spent four hours with a make-up team. Lara experiences this to a degree but there’s only so much dirt that you can smother her face with. This film isn’t afraid to beat the life out of Lara. This led to the film’s best sequence that felt like it could have been from the latest reboot. Sadly, it doesn’t last too long. The plot moves at too fast a pace to allow Lara some time alone. I feel like such a sequence would have allowed me to become more attached to her. Even if she is the best character by far in this film.

Alicia Vikander is fantastic. She’s cheeky when she needs to be but honestly gives a performance slightly above what this film deserves or even needs. When it’s just her, she’s tantalising. Sadly the characters all have to start speaking at one point. Dialogue varies from cliché to just… off. Early on, Lara tells a joke that just doesn’t make sense. The characters don’t really talk like people and this made it hard for me to understand Lara’s relationship with her father Richard Croft, played by Dominic West. This led to some lacking emotional moments for me. If it wasn’t for Vikander’s performance I may not have cared at all. The only character that this kind of worked for was Walton Goggins’ Matthias Vogel who despite having a particularly weak antagonistic relationship with one character, was brilliant. Just like the action sequences he was intense and at one point completely took me by surprise with his actions. Goggins plays this strange guy in such a way that the off dialogue ends up working.

To conclude, I need to say that ‘Tomb Raider’ in actuality isn’t all that good. It’s an entertaining ride with a great climax but sadly the plot is way more interesting than most of the characters. There’s an opportunity for the film to slow down but it doesn’t take it and rushes off to the next thing. I would recommend seeing this one as Vikander has a very promising future. I hope that just maybe this one will be remembered for being the ‘good’ videogame movie.