Runtime: 1 hour, 58 minutes
Rating: PG-13
Director: Roar Uthaug
Quick Impressions:
Alicia Vikander kind of happened when I was extremely checked out of movies after the birth of my son. I couldn’t go to the theater then. (I couldn’t even sleep through the night!) So I was vaguely aware that she was happening but didn’t encounter any of her performances until after the fact. I know she won Best Supporting Actress for The Danish Girl, but I still have not seen the film. In fact, though I could swear I watched the Oscars that year (despite having seen none of the movies), I remember absolutely nothing about her acceptance speech, just that she won.
So it did make sense to me that she would show up in a Tomb Raider reboot. You win Best Supporting Actress, and then you play Lara Croft. It worked for Angelina Jolie. It’s just the way these things are done.
But since I missed her actual moment, Vikander still holds an aura of mystery, almost wonder for me. I see her name and think, “Ah yes! It’s that girl everyone’s talking about” and then remember “three years ago.”
There are so many things I didn’t know about her before writing this review. 1) She’s Swedish. (How could I not have known that?) 2) She’s married to Michael Fassbender. (So she makes good choices!)
And while watching Tomb Raider last night, I definitely saw her appeal and understood why she was the “it girl” of the hour…three years ago.
Let me tell you, forget about three years ago. Vikander is an amazing presence right now. She bites into an apple, and the entire screen lights up, and suddenly life makes sense. Seriously, I would happily watch an entire movie of just her eating apples. (Biblical epics seem to be back in fashion. Maybe she could play Eve.)
I’m not hinting at anything lurid or overly sensuous in her apple munching. It’s just that going into the movie last night, I had no idea if this new Tomb Raider would be any good. But the instant Vikander showed up biting her apple, I knew for sure I would enjoy every scene that followed. She can make even mundane interactions a joy to watch. She’s loaded with screen presence and charisma and has an impeccable sense of timing.
I knew right away that I would love her Lara Croft.
Granted, I liked Angelina Jolie’s Lara Croft, too. (I like Angelina Jolie in general. Her whole interaction style screams, “I admit, I’m not like the rest of you, so with that in mind, I will be doing exactly what I want at all times, and you can’t say I didn’t warn you.” She’s the honey badger of celebrities.) The 2001 Tomb Raider is not great, but it’s still not without its charms, kind of like a live action cartoon.
This 2018 version is immeasurably superior. In fact, it’s not really like the Jolie movie at all. It’s one part video game, one part Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, one part Batman Begins. With Alicia Vikander!
The Good:
Okay, the movie is actually more than one part Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. It pretty much rips off huge plot points, but I didn’t mind because I always loved that movie. Besides, as my husband pointed out, in the original games, Lara Croft was presented as a female Indiana Jones type.
I was actually incredibly surprised by how much I enjoyed this movie. I love movies, in general, but I’m always highly suspicious of action blockbusters with release dates in spring instead of summer. From the theatrical trailers, I really couldn’t tell if Tomb Raider would be any good or not, but I loved it.
To my surprise, I got genuinely and deeply invested in the character of Lara very quickly. There’s a scene fairly early in the film when one of Lara’s possessions is temporarily taken from her. I was on the edge of my seat in great distress, beside myself with worry, wanting to yell at the screen, “No! She needs that!” I really cared which astonished me because sometimes during popcorn flicks, I check out during the action scenes. They often seem so predictable and low stakes, filled with pointless violence since the outcome is already clear. In this robbery scene, the outcome is pretty clear, too. But in spite of that, I was worried. I truly cared about the character, a testament to Vikander’s performance, and also the sign of a good director working with a solid screenplay (or overcompensating for an inadequate screenplay. After watching, though, would bet that screenwriters Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Alastair Siddons gave director Roar Uthaug good material).
Vikander’s Lara is an incredibly sympathetic and interesting character, which astonishes me because the scenario of searching for a missing parent or mentor who disappeared on a mysterious quest is not exactly novel.
Will Lara find her father? I mean, we know she will. We’ve seen the other Tomb Raider and the trailer for this one (featuring Dominic West) and we’ve played the game, and we’ve been to the movies before. I am not spoiling anything by saying that Lara finds her father, fights bad guys, and…wait for it…raids a tomb. These plot elements are not a secret. In fact, if they didn’t happen, the audience would be baffled and unsatisfied.
And yet, even though we know exactly what to expect, the movie still conjures emotional stakes high enough to have us glued to the screen. We care about these characters. At least, I did. (And also, we’re not completely sure what’s going to turn up in that tomb.)
Vikander is great, but she’s not acting alone. The supporting cast is pretty fantastic, too. Daniel Wu is charming as a sympathetic character who seems like he’d have even more to offer us in the future. (Is the intoxicated pratfall entrance becoming a staple of movies of the late 20 teens, kind of like the 1980s training montage? Is this how future film students will easily determine when these movies were made?)
Always good as a creepy, unhinged villain, Walton Goggins shows up here as a creepy, unhinged villain. I actually loved this character because he really does seem legitimately unhinged. At moments, I found myself feeling almost sorry for him.
As Lara’s father, Dominic West has a much better part than Jon Voight did in the same role. I love the way we’re reintroduced to him. He’s like a madman trapped in a video game.
I was sort of thrilled to see Kristin Scott Thomas who seems to be having a career resurgence, appearing in lots of high profile, English language films lately. She’s fantastic and does a lot with just a few scenes.
There’s a nice part for Nick Frost, so small it’s practically a cameo. And Derek Jacobi is in it just long enough for us to say, “Hey! Look! It’s Derek Jacobi!”
So the cast is fantastic, but two things, I think, really make Tomb Raider work. One, as I’ve mentioned, is our ability to become deeply invested in Lara’s journey. The other is the way the film actually seems like a video game (admittedly, one with extremely long cutscenes). If you’re going to do Tomb Raider, why not play up its origins?
Ordinarily I’m not a huge fan of action scenes. Often I find them disorienting and boring. But in this movie, every action sequence is like something that would happen in a Tomb Raider game. Lara climbs ropes, has improbable chases, makes huge jumps, does hand to hand combat (that seems believable since we see her training at the beginning of the film). Could she actually perform all these uncanny feats of strength, balance, endurance, daring? In the real world, probably not. But Tomb Raider is based on a video game in which Lara does all these kinds of things. (And I love how her restraints become arm bands.)
Best Action Sequence:
That early chase scene when Lara tries to recover her bag is riveting. I also love the way she later chases someone to a rope, then climbs after him even when the rope escapes her.
All of these action sequences are great. You think, “Could someone really do this?” But you know Lara Croft can do it because she does all of these things in the game.
And the actual hand-to-hand combat when Lara grapples with an opponent is always a joy to watch because it’s beautifully choreographed and looks realistic. We see her training at the beginning of the film, and then we watch her use that training.
Best Scene Visually:
I love the look of Lara clinging to that rusty plane for dear life.
Best Scene:
My husband said after the movie how much he liked Lara’s (realistic) reaction after her first kill. I personally liked the action sequences best of all in this movie, which is unheard of for me.
I think best I liked a scene that wasn’t there–the sex scene. The real love story in this movie is between the father and daughter, and there’s not time for any other relationship to develop. We do see multiple possibilities for romantic connections between Lara and other characters. She flirts and jokes with a lot of people in the beginning. We see that one minor character definitely has a crush on her. And then, as you’d expect, an actual relationship develops between Lara and Lu Ren. But nothing happens yet because they’re busy doing something else, and there is literally no time for such nonsense.
I have nothing against romances or sex scenes in movies. But this is an action adventure about a woman on a quest to find her father. I think it’s refreshing not to have a rushed and pointless romance jammed in where there’s really no room for one. Somebody as focused on her goal and as beset by obstacles as Lara would definitely not have time to muse, I wonder if Lu Ren like like likes me? But in most movies, those kinds of things seem to happen whether they make sense or not. Maybe Tomb Raider‘s lack of pointless romance reflects a new trend in Hollywood. I’m glad we don’t get a scene here filling the random sex quota. We don’t miss it.
Also, I love the way the movie cleverly works in realistic profanity but keeps a PG-13 rating by having Lara save her choicest curse words for moments when louder stuff will drown her out.
The Negatives:
The movie could be called Lara Croft and the Last Crusade. I see that more as an obvious homage than a true problem since I find the third Indiana Jones adventure an extremely entertaining movie. I loved it as a child. I wish more movies would blatantly rip it off when they run out of original ideas because at least the formula there works. Other audience members may be more annoyed by this blatant theft, though.
And as far as the actual tomb raiding goes, I have two small and kind of contradictory complaints. One is that I thought, Oh man! They still have to do the whole tomb raiding part! The story seemed to be wrapping up already. But at the same time, I thought the tomb section of the movie could have been more intricate and involved, more clever, and definitely more original. (I liked the falling through body shelves part, although that made me think of the film version of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Originality is not Tomb Raider’s strong suit.)
I did love the moment of suspense when we wondered, “Will this movie include a supernatural element?” But then, I don’t know. With that much corruption and decay, wouldn’t tiny bits of mummy dust be airborne? (I’m being deliberately vague.)
The biggest question I had is, “Why didn’t Vogel just do the thing they do at the end a long time ago?” I mean, he was so desperate to leave. My husband pointed out that maybe he wanted to leave and get paid. Or maybe his daughters were being held hostage. That strategy might not have worked out for Vogel. But then why does it work out for them? I just see a bit of a flaw with that last escapey part. The movie wisely cuts to London, as if ordering, “Just go with it.”
Okay, movie. We’re friends, so I will.
Overall:
I went into Tomb Raider with zero expectations and loved the movie. It may not be one that lingers after you leave the theater, but in the moment, it’s so much fun. I’m thinking of going again so my daughter can see it, and I hope it’s just the first of a new franchise. (By the way, where is the Legend of Zelda movie we obviously need?)
If Tomb Raider is what we get for spring break, I’m excited about what the summer has in store.