By Jason Guyer
[email protected]
Oct. 25, 1996, 13 years old and ostentatiously trying to convince my parents to buy the original “Tomb Raider” on the Sony Playstation.
When I finally convinced them, “Tomb Raider” became one of my favorite childhood video games, as did the recent reboot in 2013.
The films never had the same effect.
Angelina Jolie was okay as Lara Croft but the films were not great. They were simple action-adventure movies with bad plots and subplots.
My tomb raiding film preferences were held by Doctor Jones — especially “Temple of Doom” and “Raiders.”
The early “Tomb Raider” films never really captured the panache of Lara Croft, although it is probably hard to translate a puzzle game.
Even though it is an action adventure puzzle game.
Fast forward to 2018 and we get a reboot (of sorts) of the “Tomb Raider” franchise, although this time it’s based on the 2013 reboot of the video game franchise.
The 2018 version is an origin story about Lara Croft, who is the independent and fiery daughter whose father died years earlier on a secret adventure.
As she starts to get clues, Croft looks to solve the mystery of her father’s disappearance.
On a journey to his last-known destination, a fabled tomb on a mythical island, Croft gets caught in a perilous fight for her life.
There are two main characters in “Tomb Raider” — Lara Croft and Mathias Vogel.
Croft is played by Alicia Vikander and Vogel by Walton Goggins.
When the trailer was released for “Tomb Raider,” I was especially excited to see Goggins.
Goggins is one of my favorite actors, mostly because of his turn on the television “Justified” as Boyd Crowder.
Although, I also enjoyed his crazy antics in the movie “American Ultra” as Laugher.
In “Tomb Raider,” Goggins’ often eccentric character work is held back.
Held back so much that it feels like you never really get a feel for the character, except for maybe two key scenes.
One of the best aspects of “Tomb Raider” is its brisk pace.
“Tomb Raider” feels like watching a 45-minute television show and for a film that is bad.
There is so little to the film that the only character you can get a feel for is Lara Croft.
This is not the actors’ fault. It is the writer’s, director’s and really the film’s fault.
Croft is only helped because her character has past films and video games to aid in giving the character more depth.
Like Goggins, Vikander is great and does well with what she is given to work with.
Vikander is also an actor for whom I am a huge fan. Her role as Ava in “Ex Machina” is still one of the best I have seen in years and is a film that I love.
In “Tomb Raider,” Vikander really shows what an actor who puts forth effort can do with a shoddy script and poor directing.
You can feel her effort behind every shriek or grunt of exertion.
Vikander is a wonderful actress with tremendous capability (just see “The Danish Girl”), who is under utilized in ‘Tomb Raider.”
She could have done wonders if the “Tomb Raider” film stayed truer to the video game.
In the game, Croft has to survive on the island after being shipwrecked. Through what it takes to survive, Lara Croft the girl evolves into Lara Croft the woman. Lara Croft, Tomb Raider.
The film missed this opportunity, which is another fault of the film, the writers and, ultimately, the director.
Continuing to rail on the director, with Roar Uthaug, who is relatively green with only a couple films under his belt, one mistake was worse than the rest — making “Tomb Raider” the movie feel like “Tomb Raider” the game.
There is a moment in the movie where Vikander’s Croft gets captured and then escapes with her hands bound with rope.
During her escape, she comes upon a broken-down plane and climbs into it — where she then, for some reason, sits down.
As if to contemplate her situation, during this moment a glinting raindrop falls down and trickles down the sharp edge of the plane.
Basically calling out to the character, “Hey over here, cut the ropes around your hands here!”
This is a common video game tactic to direct a player down the main storyline of the game.
This is not necessary in a film.
Just have the character look and find, quickly, a sharp object to cut the ropes. The character would know they had to cut the bonds.
The viewer is seeing what is happening and there is no need to direct them to something that obvious.
Petty filmmaking is what it is and serves only one purpose and that is to make the film feel like a video game.
No film should ever feel like a video game.
Vikander and Goggins, no matter how good they did or could have done, could never make up for that.
Just ask Jake Gyllenhaal. Remember “Prince of Persia?” Yeah, me either.
‘Tomb Raider” is no “Prince of Persia” though and is better than the Angelina Jolie versions.
In the end, “Tomb Raider” is entombed in its own swift and simplistic story and video-gamey feel, and although it may tease a sequel in the credits, consider this tomb raided.
IRATE SCORE: 2/5
Jason Guyer is an avid moviegoer and works in the Graphics Department at the Eagle Times. For questions or comments he can be emailed at [email protected]
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