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In 2001, young Oscar winner and Hollywood tough girl Angelina Jolie solidified her place in the spotlight by starring in the video game adaptation Lara Croft: Tomb Raider—and, two years later, its sequel. Now, in the Tomb Raider reboot, another Oscar winner steps into the role.
Tomb Raider stars Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft, a young heiress who’s struggling to make ends meet because she refuses to sign the paperwork declaring her long-missing father dead. But when she uncovers the clues that lead her to her father’s secret study, she learns that he wasn’t just a stuffy businessman; he was an adventurer. His obsession with the supernatural sent him on his final mission to find a mythical tomb located on a remote island off Japan. So, determined to understand the actions that led to her father’s disappearance, Lara sets out in search of answers.
The quest here is dark and treacherous, with plenty of fight sequences and other perilous situations. And Vikander handles it all with ease. Her Lara is more than just another girl who gets caught up in a guy’s story. She’s developed as a strong young woman from the start, with a background in mixed martial arts. So when the real action begins, it’s no surprise that she can hold her own—instead of just shrieking and running, like the average woman in an action movie.
In the early scenes, Lara is tough and fiercely determined, yet fun-loving and playful, with a mischievous glint in her eye. She can easily go from fighting in the ring to joking around with her fellow bike couriers. But it isn’t long before the playfulness gives way to stone-cold seriousness as she begins her journey. And that’s one of the film’s greatest flaws: that it wastes its star’s easy-going likability in straight-faced action and melodrama.
This isn’t really a serious story. After all, it’s based on a video game—complete with challenges and riddles and puzzles that sometimes make the video game inspiration a little too obvious. It’s completely over-the-top in so many ways—and it should be played as such. But instead of allowing Vikander to have fun with the action and adventure, it takes itself way too seriously, sometimes getting bogged down in lengthy exposition that only complicates the adventure.
The new Tomb Raider is definitely action-packed—but it’s also far too serious. The end of the film makes it clear that this isn’t the last we’ll see of Vikander’s Lara Croft—and one can only hope that she’ll get to have a little more fun with the adventure the next time around.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
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