Did you find anything new or fresh in Tomb?Įdwin: I didn’t, and it’s the kind of movie where I was constantly aware that our protagonist was never in any real danger. This new movie, except for a kinda fun bike race in London and a foot race in Hong Kong, both sort of pointless, is marooned on a King Kong-like uncharted jungle island with a lot of really dull bad guys. Is the 2002 edition any better?īruce: The Jolie version follows the James Bond globe-trotting model, with scenes in Venice, Cambodia and Siberia, and it adheres more to the "supernatural artifact" tradition of the Raiders of the Lost Ark movies. I never saw Jolie’s version, but based on Vikander’s turn, the torch-passing seems more like a curse than a gift. Is this role some kind of rite of passage?Įdwin Arnaudin: Apparently, and likely bestowed upon the new Academy Award winner via a coupon placed in her post-ceremony gift bag. Two year later, she's playing Lara Croft in the blockbuster Tomb Raider. In early 2016, a little-known 27-year-old actress named Alicia Vikander won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Two years later, she starred in the blockbuster Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Should you go? Alicia Vikander is so much fun to watch.Bruce Steele: In early 2000, a little-known 24-year-old actress named Angelina Jolie won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.Rated: PG-13 for sequences of violence and action, and for some language.Starring: Alicia Vikander, Dominic West, Walton Goggins, Daniel Wu, Kristin Scott Thomas.Might as well go along for the rest of the ride. This fresh, modern and grounded approach to Lara Croft has you in its chokehold before you can resist. But Vikander attacks this role at a headlong pace, with a raspy primal yelp, and she’s so much fun to watch. She’s awe-inspiring even when aided by far too much janky CGI, and that’s the thing - the story is essentially nonexistent and very silly, and a lot of the digital action is very sketchy. The only double Ds here are her deltoids. Her physicality functions to run, fight and survive, and Vikander is astonishingly ripped in this film. This Lara is worth looking at not for her sex appeal but for her strength and skill - for what she can do. Lara Croft has always been tough and strong, but she was known far more for her sexy, cosmetic assets. This also ties into another important evolution of the character. ‘Candy Cane Lane’ review: My Christmas wish is for Eddie Murphy to find a better Christmas movie This is very much a film about puzzles and tasks, which Lara has to complete to move on to the next level. Good henchman benefits, probably.īut this movie isn’t about plot or story, and that’s OK for its form, which mimics a video game. The film skips over large swaths of exposition, like why Vogel sticks around in this dead-end job for close to a decade, how the Dread Pirate McNulty, aka Papa Croft, evaded him, or really anything having to do with why anyone is on this island. Truthfully, there isn’t very much plot here at all. Lara follows suit to Yamatai, where she shows her old man just how to raid a tomb, while battling career raider Vogel (Walton Goggins), employed by a mysterious company to retrieve the dangerous contents of said tomb. In this case, it’s to the treacherous island Yamatai, where he’s gone raidin’ the tomb of Himiko, an ancient Japanese queen sorceress. In this origin story, they’ve reimagined Lara as an orphaned enfant terrible, an MMA-fighting, radical bike courier rebelling against her privileged past.īut when she’s forced to confront it, she discovers her long-lost father Richard Croft’s (Dominic West) passion for dangerous treasure hunting, and follows in his footsteps. She’s resurfaced again, with a whole new look and level of sass, thanks to Oscar-winning star Alicia Vikander, Norwegian film director Roar Uthaug, and writers Geneva Robertson-Dworet, Alastair Siddons and Evan Daugherty. Angelina Jolie left her indelible mark on Lara Croft back in the early 2000s, but this video game character constantly regenerates with impunity, whether we want her to or not.
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