If you want the short version, it’s a good adaptation of the source material, but the jury’s still out on whether it’s a great one. Maybe by the end of this piece I’ll have reached a verdict.

As you undoubtedly know, Tomb Raider is based on the 2013 reboot of the game franchise (and to an extent, its sequel and intervening comics) and stars Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft. Right off the bat, you can tell this Lara is nowhere close to the playful tomb raiding expert played by Angelina Jolie in the previous movies. Vikander’s Lara is not a confident fighter nor an expert archaeologist, not to mention she’s penniless, getting by as a bike courier. The reason why is explained early on in the movie and I found it to be quite satisfactory considering Lara’s character. In fact, for a good chunk of the movie I didn’t feel like I was watching a videogame movie at all, a credit to the director who took a rather different, more serious, approach, perhaps trying to mirror what Spielberg and Lucas did for the Indiana Jones franchise.

Lara’s motivation for her expedition to Yamatai however, is radically different from that of the game, and I don’t think I’m spoiling anything by saying she’s driven there because it was her late father’s last case, as it were, and Lara’s undoubtedly hoping to find clues there of what happened to him. You can see already how the movie’s mixing the first game with parts of its sequel and it will continue to do so in other ways as well. Unfortunately, since Lara’s neither an archaeology graduate nor does she have any money, the expedition she’s able to fund consists of a single additional character, Lu Ren, captain of the Endurance. This makes for less rich interactions than those of the game where you brought along Jonah, Reyes, Whitman, Roth, Grim, and Lara’s best friend (and perhaps more?), Sam, but I think Lara and Lu Ren worked well off each other. Of course, the video game takes over 10 hours to complete so we have plenty of time to develop the characters, have them interact with each other, and explain the island’s history and mythology.

She’s no Angelina Jolie (who is?), but she’s not half bad as a younger, more inexperienced, version of Lara. I do wish she were more of an archaeologist or historian though. Maybe in the sequel?

Since we mentioned the island’s mythology, we might as well talk Himiko. While still a Queen, the movie’s mythology doesn’t have her controlling the weather for her own nefarious purposes but being a bloodthirsty avatar of death, to the point her own generals rebelled against her and entombed her on Yamatai. Trinity is also present in the movie in the form of Mathias Vogel, a ruthless contract mercenary who’s been hired to find Himiko’s final resting place, something he’s been unable to do for the past seven years. The movie, by way of Richard Croft’s recordings (another nod to Rise), beats you over the head that if Trinity finds Himiko it’s game over for the world as we know it, but it never really explains why. Does Trinity hope to resurrect Himiko? Can they even do this? This works in the game because the Solarii are pretty much deranged and they’re hoping Himiko’s resurrection will grant them a way off the island (tying Himiko to the weather makes more sense all things considered), but in the movie it’s a bit vague. As you’ve also gathered from the trailer, there are a few traps that our heroine must overcome to find Himiko’s tomb, and while I did get very strong Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade vibes from it, they’re not nearly as good, and one of them is rather convoluted (to put it mildly). Hopefully, if and when Lara becomes more of an archaeologist, we’ll also get more elaborate and rewarding puzzles. Still, they’re not Jolie’s Tomb Raider levels of bad or far-fetched by any stretch of the imagination.

Another thing this movie pulls off rather well, to my mind, is its depiction of Lara’s physical and psychological pain while in the island. There are many examples of this in the game and, in fact, this theme is continued in the comics, going so far as to suggest Lara’s an adrenaline junkie, actively looking for or placing herself in dangerous situations for the thrill of it. In this movie you can feel Lara’s fear and pain as she escapes Vogel’s men. This chase incorporates several elements or situations from the videogame and perhaps you will find it drags on a bit longer than it should although, personally, I had no qualms with its length. But, damn, I was not expecting the extremely uncomfortable sounds Vikander makes when she’s hurt, almost as if they were lifted from the game itself, reinforcing the harsh reality of it all. And the raw nature of her fight with one of Vogel’s men, the shock, the revulsion, the pain, the sadness, so many emotions show on her face when she’s forced to kill him with her own hands… Damn. It is such a shame then that this amazing scene, that you would never in a million years find in Jolie’s Tomb Raider (nor most videogame adaptations for that matter), is undercut almost immediately by the scene that follows but I will discuss this in the spoilers section at the end of this piece.

Mathias Vogel is not a very nice man. Also, he’s more than a little unhinged, but you would be too if you’d spent seven years stuck on a deserted island while your family’s waiting for you.

Does Lara ultimately become the Tomb Raider we all know and love? Hardly, but she does get her fortune back so that’s a start. It’s such a shame they felt compelled to hint at a sequel in such a heavy-handed way. You could’ve made the same reveal more contained and impactful. In fact, they could’ve built the sequel entirely on that premise without revealing anything until, I dunno, midway through the movie. You can also see it coming miles away, in no small part thanks to the games it draws from. I harbour some doubt on whether it will rise to the task. Get it? ‘cause Rise… Ahem. The movie ends in a humorous and self-referential note that I could’ve done without, honestly. In hindsight, I would’ve loved it if the last scene in the movie had been of Lara finally attending university to study archaeology (her curiosity having being piqued by these events) and meeting Sam there (okay, that last part would’ve been a bonus).



Is the movie better than the game? No, there’s no way it could’ve been. Do I think it was a solid adaptation of the source material? Yes, yes I do. They managed to deftly incorporate a lot of the elements of the game. For instance, there’s a scene in the movie where Lara infiltrates Vogel’s camp that reminded me so much of when I sneak around in the game. On the other hand, Lara does get used to the idea of killing people awfully fast, doesn’t she? To be fair, the same happens in the game. I can still fondly remember Lara carrying her trusty AK-47 and shouting, “Come at me, bro!” to her enemies. Ah, good times! To sum up, it’s one of the better videogame adaptations out there and I definitely recommend watching it if you’re a fan of the game.

7-8/10. (Personally, it’s an 8 for me)

Be forewarned, there are spoilers from the movie and the Rise of the Tomb Raider game below.

Be forewarned, uh, again!

It’s spoiler time! Where to begin?

A few seconds perchance after Lara kills Vogel’s tracker, the movie pulls a twist I did not expect by revealing her father has actually been alive all this time! You can understand now why I said earlier that this revelation undercuts Lara coming to grips with what she’s just done. Initially I thought maybe Lara was being deilirous, a condition that could’ve been accelerated due to the wound she had received earlier. She had not treated the wound that we knew of, and she had been subjected to a lot of emotional and physical trauma over the span of a single day. She was cold, she was hungry, she was hurt, maybe she was just delusional, and, in hindsight, I would’ve liked it if the movie had played around with this idea a bit more. However, it was clear to me from the moment we saw Richard Croft’s face that this was all real (why would you show his face so early?!).

It was a very touching reunion, to be sure, with neither being entirely sure whether the other was real or not. Richard Croft certainly came across this way, as he no doubt had seen his daughter’s face on the island multiple times over the course of his stay. Unfortunately, I do feel they wasted a perfect opportunity to have Richard confront and comfort Lara regarding the traumatic event that she just went through. After all, he apparently saw the entire thing go down. I can only imagine what he must have felt when he saw his daughter fighting for her life and how broken she was after she was forced to kill Vogel’s man. Of course, he must’ve had damn good eyesight to recognize her daughter at that distance, at night, and probably covered in mud, but I digress.

Ultimately, her father being alive was a welcome change and one that plays into Lara’s motivation for helping Vogel reach Himiko’s tomb. Unlike the more mature Lara Croft that we know, the one who would probably help Vogel to satiate her own curiosity, Vikander’s Lara is now, understandably, only concerned with getting her father back and, therefore, escaping the island. Lara doesn’t believe finding Himiko will spell doom for the entire world like her father does so it makes sense that she decides to help Vogel for a ticket off the island. She does have a change of heart though when she finds out, in another welcome twist that may remind you of Uncharted, that Himiko was a carrier for a deadly virus that spreads through touch and apparently turns people into zombies, which is why she decided, of her own volition, to seal herself away on Yamatai. Fortunately, the zombie bit is not as exaggerated as in, say, Resident Evil, and it does explain why an organization like Trinity would want to find Himiko. It does strike me as odd that they would risk losing the entire expedition to this disease and not warn Vogel to take precautions. Then again, it’s likely they were only aware of the legend and wanted to find out if there was some truth to it that they could use to their advantage. For better or worse, but I think it’s for the better, we remain unaware of their agenda.

No, seriously, how does this puzzle work?

Since we’re talking spoilers I’d also like to mention that the convoluted trap I was talking about earlier is, obviously, the light puzzle. I almost laughed when Vogel and her father started handing her so many coloured crystals! A good point is made in AngryJoe’s review of the movie that it almost seems like this trap is unsolvable, in that it shouldn’t work. Is there some kind of light sensor that can detect the green light and open the door? Do the crystals weigh differently? How does this trap work? This one puzzle can harm your suspension of disbelief for sure. The rest were fairly standard and, why not, underwhelming.

Finally, let’s talk Ana. Ana’s a character introduced in the sequel, Rise of the Tomb Raider. She’s Richard Croft’s girlfriend and while she apparently loves Lara very much, Lara doesn’t come across as overly fond of her (apply psychology 101 here). The movie depicts a similar relationship between the two but I don’t think it ever clarifies who she is in relation to the Crofts. It’s stated that she worked for Lara’s father but I don’t recall it ever being said that she was her father’s girlfriend. Perhaps we’re supposed to assume this anyway? It’s such a shame that they felt the need to out her in this movie instead of having her reconnect with Lara and strengthening the bond between the two before the inevitable reveal in the sequel. It would’ve pulled one over the game had it done so, as we’re not really given a lot of time to bond with Ana (despite the fact I truly felt she came to love both Lara and her father and was biding her time to give Trinity the boot). Beyond the heavy-handed nature of the reveal, it also raises questions of whether Richard Croft knew this and, if he did, why he encouraged the relationship and what steps, if any, he took to protect Lara from Trinity. I hope against hope they go the “I was trying to protect you and your father from Trinity” route with Ana instead of, “Stupid girl, we were just using your father to point the way! Muahahaha!” Come on, you got Kristin Scott Thomas to play her, please don’t turn her into a one-dimensional villain.

Better bring your A game in the sequel when you explore Ana’s ties and where her loyalties lie. I am naturally biased so I won’t accept anything short of her character in Rise of the Tomb Raider. The more you can improve the better.

I think that about covers everything I wanted to say. You can find several odds and ends to nitpick about though, like how her father’s camera still has enough battery left after seven years, how the sat-phone is forgotten almost as soon as it’s acquired, or why Lara didn’t simply kick off the ladder from the other side of the abyss. I suppose it will come down to whether you played the game, whether you enjoyed it, and whether you feel that Tomb Raider is able to capture the essence of it. For my part, I believe it does and I’m eager to see where the sequel takes us.