Review of Tomb Raider (2018) by Kevin P — 21 Jun 2018

Strengths: Film based off video games can really misfire. This one actually feels very true to the more recent remake of the Tomb Raider games. Alicia Vikander (Lara Croft) does a far better job as the lead than Angelina Jolie. She doesn't phone it in and portrays Lara as fierce, yet vulnerable. It's great work. She played well off her co-stars, namely Dominic West (Lord Richard Croft), Walton Goggins (Mathias Vogel), and Daniel Wu (Lu Ren). Goggins is especially fantastic as the antagonist. He's a fully developed character with motivations that you can understand. West is also strong as the father figure genius who went mad. Ren is fine in his role, too. The action scenes are exciting and visually strong, with tension and suspense building towards nice conclusions. They did well to make the scenes of Lara trying to survive on her own into something interesting. The Hunger Games film failed at that for Katniss, but it really worked this time.

Weaknesses: They tried hard with the story, but it didn't fully click. The plot never felt interesting enough to carry a two hour film. In fact, the first half hour or so of the film feels slow. It takes a while to get going and the first bit of action doesn't come until Lara is on the boat with Lu and they reach their destination. That comes kind of late into the film for that. There are also several plot holes that stick out when you pay attention to the film.

Overall: This is a good update for the Tomb Raider franchise, besting both Angelina Jolie movies with ease. It's not anything great, but it's an enjoyable watch with some strong performances.