REVIEW: Tomb Raider

This CG-actioner is the best film in the Lara Croft film series.  It has plenty of action and "kineticism" to the plot and sequences, and Alicia Vikander is fantastic.  She goes through hell, but is made for this role. She is naive yet strong, and supremely sexy.  It is basically an origin story, because while she does do lots of typical tomb raider-y stuff, she is also a bit young and stupid. I love the set up for the sequel, and very much hope it gets made.  This could be a great franchise. But as fun as it was, it leaves a lot for sequels to mine, which hurts this first effort.  There are too many night sequences. The shipwreck, the nightfall fight where Lara drowns a guard, and the entire ending inside the tomb were all difficult to follow.  The Hong Kong chase and the waterfall sequence were far-and-away the better set pieces.  Also, while there was a bit of tomb raiding and solving puzzles, there needed to be way more of this, and I feel it was missing a final, heroic action sequence. Much of the finale was inside the tomb and therefore dark (even more so due to the 3D glasses), and the film's outcome did not feel completely like a Lara Croft victory.

As far as performances go; Vikander is up there with the likes of Linda Hamilton (Terminator 2) and Uma Thurman (Kill Bill) in terms of action heroines, but she is also attractive, so for me she claims pole.  Loved her in this.  Dominic West is miscast as Lara's father, Richard Croft.  It should have been someone with more clout and seniority.  But Nick Frost supplied some levity as the pawn shop owner, in a role I hope (and think) will be expanded on in the sequel(s).  Daniel Wu was just Daniel Wu.  Walt Goggins was just Walt Goggins.  A bit of a waste for those two - a disposable sidekick and, while ruthless, a standard-fare villain.

The film was quite obviously made with an eye on the Chinese market.  Even though it was not blatant, there was enough in there (Daniel Wu, set in Hong Kong, the Chinese passport gag, the takeaway rider, etc.) which makes it even more dumbfounding that it pretty much bombed here (will finish with around $80m).

B