Tomb Raider (2018)

⭐⭐ ½ based on 1 review.

tl;dr: The best we've had so far on the silver screen, but the plot, action, and characters still feel more like an extended cutscene in a video game than anything worth the time investment. Enjoyable enough.

Review

Spoilers Ahead: My reviews are not spoiler-free. You have been warned.

I'd heard less-than-stellar things about the modern adaptation of Tomb Raider, but at least it appears to be based off the rebooted video games, rather than the slightly bizarre (even if they were fun) original franchise. With that in mind, I thought this captured the nature of the games – both new and old – well enough. The plot isn't going to win any awards, but it feels like a Tomb Raider story. I even quite liked the "scientific" twist to the curse which helped ground it in a little less mysticism (even if it was admittedly Hollywood science and otherwise complete hokum).

The characters are still quite two-dimensional but Lara herself is fun and I feel the actress did the best job she could with what she was given. Of course, I wasn't expecting anything groundbreaking here, nor with the dialogue or "NPCs", but they're all just about passable. The action, on the other hand, is where this film needs to put a good foot forward and, for the most part, it does. The guns were a fun nod for fans but I personally thought the archery and pickaxe were more interesting.

Ultimately, I'm not sure how directly related to the reboot games the story was, but it had the feel of being a fairly direct adaptation. If that is the case, I guess its done well enough, but also means that the very people that will get the most out of the film – the fans – will probably find nothing new. Also, disappointed at the lack of a Tyrannosaurs running around...