Video game movies have a bit of a reputation - they're almost always terrible. This is largely thanks to such gems as Super Mario, Bloodrayne, and even the more recent Doom and Hitman films. They either miss what made the source material so good in the first place or were just really poorly executed. Street Fighter with Jean Claude Van Damme and the spectacular Raul Julia was so bad, it went from terrible to cult classic much like The Room.
So, did Roar Uthaug's Tomb Raider buck the trend and finally make a good video game movie?
The 2013 Tomb Raider game serves as the source material for the 2018 film - it's a reimagining of Lara Croft's story aiming to introduce Lara Croft to a new audience. It managed to reduce the character's overt sexuality but still keeping her sexy af, you know what I mean? The reboot fleshed out her character and made her a little bit more relateable. It was a magnificent game. To be fair, the movie does take a lot of cues from the game and it really shows.
OK let's get this review started. Let's go! I'll try to keep it as spoiler free as possible.
The Good
The start of the film really set the tone for who Lara is as a character. It helps that Alicia Vikander does a great job of playing that bit up. No, she's not as flashy as Jolie was but the new Lara Croft isn't meant to be.
The film shows how she came to do what she does, much like the 2013 game, but in the game, you start out on the boat, and the backstory is filled in through stuff you can read and listen to throughout the gameplay. The movie did a better job at establishing the motivation of the character than the game did. In the game, as the player, I felt Lara's motivation was merely survival. It's good that throughout the film, they stayed on course with that motivation and didn't give Lara a love interest in Daniel Wu.
I also like how they gave Lara a more distinct personality. Now that I think about it, Lara in the games does come off as a bit bland. Alicia was able to make the movie Lara a little more three-dimensional, with a bit more humor and spunk.
One of the more enjoyable things in the movie is the action. Though some of the CG stuff looks slightly fake for today's standards (looking at you airplane waterfall scene), they weren't bad enough to distract from the quality of the action. Whether it's a fox run in the mean streets of London or a boat trip gone wrong or a shootout on an island, the action was good enough to keep your eyes glued to the screen. I particularly enjoyed the actual tomb raiding. That bit is the most enjoyable part of the flick, and is pretty much the meat of the games. It had a very Indiana Jones-y vibe to it without the humor and charm, but that's pretty much what Tomb Raider is these days.
The Bad
The dialogue, for the most part, feels... meh. There were a few attempts at having that memorable cinematic moment, but they all kinda fell flat. Some lines and deliveries even bordered on the cheesy side of things. And there are few things in the world of cinema worse than unintentionally cheesy dialogue. I found myself whincing every now and then and that's not something you want in a movie that's attempting to be taken seriously.
Apart from the dialogue, I felt like there were a few pacing issues. While I appreciated that they took time to establish who Lara is, I feel like the latter half was a bit rushed. The movie took the time to explain how she knows how to fight and how she knows how she's good with a bow and arrow but the jump from "OH MY GOD I JUST KILLED A GUY" to "LET"S FUCKING KILL THEM ALL" was a bit too sudden.
To be fair, it was like that in the game, too. It was a whole scene where Lara was forced to kill some guy, and in a matter of minutes, she was on a killing spree. It's a bit rapey so it might make you uncomfy.
The funnest part of the 2013 game were the puzzles. They played a major role in the movie, too, but overall felt a bit weird and out of place. I don't wanna go into too many spoilers, but when you see the puzzles and how they're laid out in the movie, you'd ask yourself why no one has ever solved them given where they were and how the movie never really explained why they're so complex. I get that we'd need to believe that Lara is this ultra bright person who has the unique ability to solve these things, but that doesn't really come across in the film. Her dad, Dominic West, didn't seem to have an extraordinary knack for puzzles, either. At least, it was never really fully explained or shown, just mentioned and you were expected to believe it.
Another miss I believe is that Walton Goggins' Mathias feels like another generic gun-toting psychotic villain. He wasn't interesting at all. They should've gone closer to the video game Mathias.
Overall
6.7Overall7Presentation6.5Soundtrack6.5Plot6.5Performances7Fun factor
All said, it is an enjoyable film. It isn't great, for sure, but as far as video game movies go, it isn't the worst. I'd probably give the movie a 6.7 out of 10. It isn't quite as bad as a 6.5 but didn't feel like a 7 to me.
I'm glad that film makers are starting to make better video game movies. With video games becoming more cinematic and raking in big bucks, I don't imagine this will be the last good video game movie we'll be seeing. Now, if Uncharted did this, added more believability, didn't rush through things, and poured on the trademark Nathan Drake humor and charm, we'll have ourselves a winner.