There haven’t been a lot of movies adapted from games, let alone, movies adapted from games that are good. The Tomb Raider franchise has already had one stab at the movie business and given us a good outing, but the powers that be have decided to give Tomb Raider another stab, this time though, just like the game series, focusing more on the origin of the character Lara Croft.
This movie’s story is adapted from the same story that can be found in the game Rise of the Tomb Raider, where Lara Croft, played by Alicia Vikander, makes her way to a uninhabited island called Yamatai to look into the legend of Himiko, a goddess who reined over the country. But as she ends up on the island, she finds herself facing new perils and new challenges that will push her to her very limits. I enjoyed this movie, but I did find that the start of the movie was slow because of the character development that was given to use for Lara and her family unit. This movie looks to stand on its own and does not go beat for beat with the game, which I think helps give it a good identity. Where the game fully embraces the mystical and spiritual side of the franchise, this movie is alot more grounded, opting to focus on character and world development. What I hope is that if when more sequels are named, that they slowly bring the mystical into the franchise.
What I really like is that the movie fully acknowledges the game with very nice nods and references to it throughout the movie. This movie rested alot on the performance of Alicia Vikander, which I think she does really well. she shows alot of emotion throughout the movie and certain scenes fully give you the sense that even though she is trying to roll with what is being dished out to her, she feels like more of a badass as we get to the final act of the movie and the final scene really nails it in.
The supporting characters also do really well to help prop up this movie. Daniel Wu as Lu Ren gives Lara a nice sidekick character to trade jabs and quips with, as well as Walton Goggins who makes a really compelling villian in Mathias Vogel.
The clothing and style of Lara Croft is lifted straight from the game and Vikander looks exactly like the game version which I think is brilliant for the movie. The cosplay world has seen alot of Lara Crofts and has also seen the different versions and variations that can be found. This is one of the fun parts of cosplaying video game characters, alot of the characters are able to have different clothes and weapons that can give us cosplayers a challenge to make new and exciting cosplays. Lord knows everyone gets a kick out of the cosplayers that do the Lara Croft triangle boob version! Alot of games nowadays, like the movies, have upped their game to bring us such beautiful choices for clothing and style of characters. With Tomb Raider, while not intricate, still offers a chance to cosplay a badass woman who could be covered in mud and blood and still look good kicking your arse!
But with this movie, we do get to see a really good adaptation of a wonderful game franchise, and we can have hope that more games will get their adaptations very soon! Spyro The Dragon movie anyone? Crash Bandicoot? Hell! if we can get R-rated superhero movies, I’m gonna hold out hope for my Bayonetta movie!