Review of Tomb Raider (2018) by David B — 01 Jan 2019

Tomb Raider is the perfect example of why film adaptations of story driven video games just don't work. Telling it's own version of the first game in the rebooted Tomb Raider series, this film tries to cram the games 20+ hours of story into 2 and the results are messy. About half of the film is spent on exposition, much of which is pointless and adds nothing to the film including watching Lara getting involved in a rather dull bike chase through London. As a result, the main plot of this film, which is Lara trying to finish her presumed dead fathers work, is rushed in the films second half and misses the action set pieces that a film like this really needs.

Whilst Tomb Raider does suffer from poor planning, it's not all bad. Whereas Angelina Jolie was the perfect choice for the original Lara Croft, Alicia Vikander is an equally perfect choice for the rebooted Lara and does a fantastic job of bringing Lara to life. If this franchise has any legs then she is the perfect Lara to carry it forward. Walton Goggins also does a top job as the films villain although he doesn't really get enough screen time The action set pieces that are there are also entertaining enough to help you forget about the tedium of the first hour but even then, they do feel like uninspired versions of what we've seen in Indiana Jones.

Given the depth that the producers and director have tried to add to Tomb Raider, I can't help but feel it would have been served better by being made as a TV show instead of a film.