Board 8 > Tomb Raider was a good movie. (minor spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

GOOD, but not great due to its formulaic nature, but it was still fun like any movie of its genre should be. I particularly like that it's just for enjoyment and there's no underlying political message or potential conspiracy theories. That's what movies SHOULD be about: Enjoyment!

While it stayed true to the core plot of the game, I wish we'd gotten more of the characters. Lara aside, what we did get was... bland. Alicia Vikander was great, though. And she's hot. And did the badass part well. Lara was a badass in this outing for sure - as it should be. She was not at all about "female empowerment" as much as she was proof that a female hero can kick just as much ass as a male hero.

Overall, I'd say it's worth seeing. Not mandatory, but if you have time, why not?
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My second favorite videogame movie. Which speaks more to how awful videogame movies generally are, but still, it was pretty good
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DeathChicken posted...

My second favorite videogame movie. Which speaks more to how awful videogame movies generally are, but still, it was pretty good

What's your favorite?

I haven't seen all that many because they tend to be terrible. This one actually looked good and it was. I was not disappointed, though I was not blown away either. Solid 7/10, I'd say, which means it's a masterpiece by video game movie standards, right?
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Mortal Kombat. Now there's a movie that was well aware it wasn't a *good* movie, but the source material was ridiculous to begin with, so let's just go insane with it
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Yeah, I haven't seen that one, but if the source material is over-the-top, why should the movie be tame? That doesn't follow any logic. An identity crisis isn't good for any movie - and it sounds like MK didn't have that. This Tomb Raider movie definitely knew what it was supposed to be. Though I saw one critic dock points for "having no subliminal message" - said critic should be fired. It's a fucking action/adventure movie. A subliminal message is a BAD thing! It's meant to be FUN!

After two days, I'm maintaining it's a solid 7/10. A predictable but still fun viewing experience. And most importantly, it's not in 3D.
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I just saw it, thought it was pretty good. Lara's arc from the start of the movie to the end was great. It's believable for her to have the skills to do the things she does towards the end, but she didn't have the life experience and fortitude to do them until she goes through what happens at the various stages of the movie.

I thought the Himiko stuff was a great twist. It fit perfectly with the mythology built up throughout the movie and it all made a ton of sense. Even though it isn't how things go in the game at all.

Alicia Vikander was perfect. I always liked Jolie in the role but I always kind of saw her as Angelina Jolie playing Lara Croft whereas I felt like I actually watched Lara Croft this time.
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Lara was the best part of the movie. Like you said, Alicia Vikander did a great job becoming Lara. But I wonder if why we see Angelina as "Angelina playing Lara" is due to rsum with other film work. Alicia doesn't have that yet. We'll see what we think of her in five years.

Yeah, the Himiko stuff was rewritten for cinema. Mathias Vogel being a psychotic cult fanatic made him a more detestable, yet complex villain in the game, whereas he was rather generic in the movie. The Himiko thing... I don't know whether I like it better as (game spoilers) an undead queen who had been ruling the island for years, searching for a new vessel for her soul or (movie spoilers) a long-dead queen who sent herself to her final resting place to save her people from her disease.

The movie did handle (MAJOR ENDING SPOILER FOR THE MOVIE and for Rise of the Tomb Raider) Ana being a Trinity informant/manipulative bitch better than the games. The movie hyped me to finally play the sequel and (spoilers primarily for ROTT but also movie) the way it handled Ana being a rat was awful. It was "whatever" since the player never got to see the trust Lara had for her. I didn't even recognize her! Good writing makes the reader/player/viewer feel the same emotions the protagonist feels. This did nothing of the sort. You can see that Lara feels betrayed but since you barely know who Ana is, you don't feel an ounce of that betrayal. But in the movie, you're as surprised as Lara is when she deduces that Ana is a rat. I did see the movie before playing that part, but if it had been the reverse, it would have been less pleasant.

Still think the movie should have featured more characters from the game, like Jonah and Sam. We don't have enough major characters in play for the next one... but I'm still hoping a sequel movie happens anyway.
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My brother wishes they cut more of the early parts of the movie pre island to give room for another character from the game to be in the movie but eh, I didn't mind.

I actually really liked seeing her go through several "trials" that showed off her abilities but she kept coming up a little short.

1) boxing match. Really showed off her physique and athletic abilities. Opponent got the better of her and while we saw her stubbornness in her unwillingness to tap out, she wasn't able to find a way out of that choke hold and lost. It's a failure here

2) the bike fox tail chase. Really showed her adventurous attitude and her quick pace. Her moves were parkour like but with a bike. She put herself in a tough situation where she was vastly out numbered and handled it really well, using her cunning, quick decision making, and parkour ability to evade her opponents. However, a moment of carelessness causes her to hit that cop car and causes a game over. It's a failure here.

3) mugging in Hong Kong. Her naivet causes her backpack to be stolen, but she utilizes her parkour skills to successfully get it back. She's surprised when the situation escalates when the muggers pull a knife. She escapes to her goal on the ship, but gets cornered again and freezes up. She's saved by Lu Ren. We don't actually see her fight them but it looks like it wouldn't have gone well. I'd call it a failure here.

Then it's through the events on the island that we see her toughen up. The storm destroys the ship with them still on it. She escapes from the slave camp with gunfire upon her. She uses her parkour ability to survive the stream and airplane drop. She murders her first guard in the mud ( a great scene in both the movie and the game). This all makes her prepared for the challenges she faces in the climax.

There's no doubt in my mind that end of movie Lara would succeed at all three of the challenges she failed at the start of the movie.

Honestly I wouldn't change any of that stuff. It all added a lot to her.
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Going to see this tonight

Is it based off the original Tomb Raider games, the 2013 reboot, or just an original thing that happens to be about Lara Croft?
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It's based on the 2013 reboot
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I saw Game Night last night instead with no regrets.
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ClyTheCool posted...

It's based on the 2013 reboot

oh cool

I never really got into the originals but loved the reboot
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Cly... you make excellent points there.

The mugging was completely predictable to me, though. I saw those three guys and figured on sight that they were punks. At least she got her backpack back, which was an improvement. It seems like she did constantly improve throughout the movie, now that you mention it.

She got clobbered in the boxing match.
She "outfoxed" the guys by hiding in the back of the flatbed truck for a few blocks, but toward the end of the paint can, one moron distracted her by trying to KO her with his car door (since he was too dumb to look) and instead of shrugging it off and focusing, she ran into a cop car.
She got her backpack back from the punks, but when they pulled a knife, was saved by a very intoxicated Lu Ren waving a shotgun around.
She got out of the shipwreck alive, but with none of her possessions.
She survived the plane platforming sequence via parachute, but was badly bruised... yet still able to suffocate a thug twice her size.
And then it all came full circle.

I wonder if that was the intent of the storytelling here. She just keeps getting better!
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Ok so just got back, here are my thoughts:

Cons:

1. The makeup team really dropped the ball here. And it was probably more the fault of the producers making them keep Alicia Vikander pretty, but goddamn it took me out of the film to see her constantly going through all kinds of turmoil and walking away with barely a scratch. Like I burnt my arm on a hot baking sheet like a month ago and there's still a big, dark scar from it on my arm, but when Lara gets home she literally doesn't even have a scrape? She got up from crashing through a raging river and basically falling off a cliff looking like she had just tripped in her backyard and scuffed her jeans up a bit.

2. I agree that there was too much time spent in the beginning. I liked quite a bit of it (the boxing and the foxtail chase especially) but literally every flashback sequence was unnecessary. It's one of the things that's nice about the game; it just throws you directly into the action and then lets you figure out Lara as things are happening, rather than just handing you exposition at the beginning. And it wasn't terribly done, like Cly pointed out, the character growth we saw there worked well, I just wish they would've trimmed the fat there more to get into the plot faster.

3. Same goes for the ending. Everything inside the tomb itself was way too drawn out. The best part of the game (for me anyway) was exploring the island and seeing Lara grow into an action hero. But we spend a lot of time getting to the island, a little bit of Lara surviving the island, and then a lot of time inside a dark cave. The best part of the movie BY FAR was the river/waterfall survival, where it's like "Ok, yeah, Lara now Lara has reached badass level." But then we get like 3 arrow shots and all the island adventures were suddenly over. Feels like a wasted opportunity to capitalize on how thrilling Yamatai could've been.

4. Pretty bland cast aside from Lara. Which is weird, because Walter Goggins is an incredible villain actor, so why did they not use that? Again, it's a weird decision that limited what the movie could've been.

5. PG-13. I know they probably felt they had to do this to maintain sales, but goddamn, one of the things that stuck out the most for me about the game was how grisly and visceral it was. I expected basically an Uncharted spinoff going into the game but Tomb Raider was then I got Lara wading through a neck-high pool of blood and people getting impaled on rebar and Lara getting close, personal and violent. Everything in the movie felt a little too toned down; even the guy who got a spike through him did so without much shock.

Pros (largely been covered already so I'll just touch on them quick):

1. Vikander as Lara was a fucking PERFECT casting choice and she completely nailed the role.

2. While I wanted more action, the scenes we got were great. Foxtail chase was exciting, the rolling spike bars were great, and the river/waterfall/parachute scene was one of the best scenes I've ever seen in a video game movie, and was the closest to capturing the feel of the game itself.

3. Just really solid the whole way through. While I think some decisions were dumb, it was never anywhere near a "bad" movie, with the motivations feeling realistic, the plot twist being kind of clever (even though I miss the supernatural aspect and hope it comes back in the sequel), and the growth of Lara as a hero being well handled.

Maybe it seems like I'm being overly harsh here but I did really enjoy the movie. It's not amazing, but they definitely captured the essence of Lara Croft and what makes her great, and if they can break out of some of tropes of typical video game action movies, the sequel has the potential to be amazing.
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Sorry, work >_>

I do agree with the bland cast part and the makeup - I noticed the latter to once I started paying attention to it after the airplane sequence. As I stated about the cast, it would've been nice if we got Jonah or Sam or one of the other interesting people from the game. Roth was made obsolete by including Lara's dad. And Mathias could have been way better - he was a generic movie villain without mercy, but also without development. But they did a good job with Lara - especially Alicia Vikander herself - and that's the most important thing.

Also, the Tomb Raider reboot games are highly comparable to Uncharted, but are grittier, darker, and more visceral - which makes them more intense. Uncharted does the lighthearted parts well but doesn't get TOO dark. I would've enjoyed this movie more if it had been more gritty and raw - all while keeping the sense of fun and adventure we did get.

As for the flashbacks, I do think a few were necessary, but they might've been a bit overdone. They could have cut a few and added another ten minutes of film for another character or more intense stuff. The movie's just under two hours and many films of similar genres run almost two and a half. That said, I prefer aiming for two hours with maybe a little change.

Again, I did like what we got. Could have been better, but it could have been way, way worse. A 7/10 sounds aobut right.
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I thought it was pretty good. Would watch a sequel.
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KamikazePotato posted...

I thought it was pretty good. Would watch a sequel.

I'll definitely second that though. I think as a series it has a lot of potential once it can stop worrying about Lara's backstory and focus more on the action
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