[Review] Tomb Raider (6/10)

With how badly the video game adapted movies are coming and going these days, Tomb Raider is a refreshing change as it gave us a pretty decent ride.

Alicia Vikander fit this role like a glove. She is what the new generation of Lara Croft would look like in real life. Even in her petite frame, she would make you believe she can do all the extreme activities you see onscreen.

I love the introduction to this character. We see her fail in the first few things that she has gotten herself into - that biking spree through the streets of London was quite good too. Then she got her bag stolen but she did what it took to get it back. Every time she fails, she is back on her feet again and not giving up. That to me is Lara Croft.

Dominic West was a good father figure and Daniel Wu was a competent ally. But of course the highlight here would be the villain, and Walton Goggins fit the bill. He is always so good at being the bad guy that audiences will like to hate, and his motivations here were believable - except for that 7 years on that tiny island rubbish.

There were an excellent amount of tomb raiding, booby traps and mystery solving. A lot of the action sequences, like the one in the broken down plane, were all reminiscent of the game (though I only have had the 90's as experience).

However, all these happened with a good amount of cheesiness. You will be tempted to argue on plot holes and you would be right. Some things we as audiences were forced to just accept what we saw on the screen.

Wu had zero to do in the final arc of the story, and how he provided the escape for Lara in the middle was, again, rubbish.

But I did enjoy the last act of the movie. The first two acts were just decent enough to sit through. I hope there will be a sequel as I would like to see what kind of adventure is next for this Lara Croft.