Tomb Raider - Film Review

2018's Tomb Raider is a reboot of the film franchise which was adapted from the series of games on the PlayStation. Historically films based on games aren't good, I went in with that mind-state and it was the right thing to do! You've heard of Lara Croft, well, her father McNulty from The Wire disappeared on a quest to discover magic or something and she embarks on a dangerous journey to a mysterious island to discover what happened to him. On this island things happen like they do in the game and Boyd Crowder from Justified is the bad guy.

The first 20 minutes or so is pretty bad, the introduction to Lara Croft and the the first few action sequences are terrible, there's a bicycle chase around London which would never happen, there's an attempted robbery in Hong Kong where some thugs are willing to murder Lara just for her rucksack. There's a shitty chase scene where people pushed out of the way and smash things and all that sort of stuff and we have to endure dreamy flashbacks of her father McNulty from The Wire saying things like I miss you, I love you, you're awesome Lara etc.

After the first 20 minutes it gets a little more tolerable, it's around the point when Lara's on the boat, it doesn't get good or anything but that's kind of where the film starts. There's lots of action, Lara hangs on ledges, jumps and climbs, runs, falls, says things and has fights, there's just never any real sense of risk and they push the line of reality too far to the point where it's so ridiculous you just don't care anymore, not that you ever did! There's a lot of screaming and grunting as well which I found a bit irritating, I wasn't a fan of the general sound here.

Alicia Vikander's okay, a little annoying at times but sufficient I suppose, Dominic West was fine, Walton Goggins was fine and Daniel Wu was fine as well, nothing particularly memorable but no one delivers a bad performance. The writing's pretty weak, there's no real depth and it's full of conveniences, I wasn't invested in these characters and the story was very thin, there's nothing to be invested in either emotionally or just on a level of interest, it's predictable and it just felt kind of empty to me, I was never gripped or excited in any way.

If you're some sort of Tomb Raider nerd you might like this film, it's pretty much what you'd expect from a film about Lara Croft but if you're anyone else, there's nothing here for you! The action sequences are eye rolling, the story's unoriginal, the characters are bland and there's never a sense of anyone being in danger. I was pretty bored throughout this film and as such I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, I'm not really a fan of the games either so this whole Tomb Raider franchise means pretty much nothing to me. I'm gonna give Tomb Raider 4.7/10.

What's your favourite film based on a game?