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Alicia Vikander became the new Lara Croft and I definitely wasn’t looking forward to that. I consider her to be a brilliant actress, especially from Ex Machina, but she never seemed like the right match for the role. Fortunately, Vikander’s performance in Tomb Raider proved me wrong. From what I have seen so far, Vikander’s best performance comes in her most physically demanding role to date. And although I still think she was not entirely right for the role, Vikander as the new Lara Croft is a change I’m content with.
In both the movie and the game, we meet Lara Croft at a time in her life where a lot is about to change for her. Loosely based on an actual game, the movie is set in a futuristic world where she is a fully fledged adventurer. While in the game it’s loosely goosey version of what happened before she became an adventurer. She is set out aboard a ship with a crew full of eager eyes ready to dive into her mission of locating Yamatji’s forgotten kingdom, an island that lies in Japan. The game showed us that she Croft underlying heroine waiting to unleash and the movie fills in the gaps on what shaped her into that version. The movie does retrograde a little and explores what she was up to before she went on to look for her father alongside a team. Within these scenes is where Vikander really shines as the new Lara. It is only after every single detail is revealed regarding the world she inhabited prior to stepping foot into her father, Richard Croft’s life, did she get a shocking revelation. It is said that he went missing and was never found thus presumed dead. So now Lara, who has now become an heir, business, and manor croft gets the shocking news, but with a catch. She refuses to sign anything that would declare her father dead thus claiming the wealth. Instead she makes ends as a courier and when she is not working is busy attending boxing classes.
This is the first time, along with many flashbacks of her childhood, that we get to know who Lara was before she transformed into the global icon that everyone knows her to be.
Even though some of the scenes are similar, the story of Tomb Raider the movie unfolds in a different manner than the game. The focus of the expedition organization Trinity and Richard’s research are still around Himiko, the ancient Japanese Sun Queen with shamanistic powers. A lot of learning is done through listening to old recordings left by Richard which is an easy way to get all the backstory out to the audience, but in this case, we do not have the time to go through this myth the same way we would have in the game. The only problem is that we listen to this exact recording about 3 times to remind the audience key facts and that is a bit shoddy. The legend states that when Himiko died, her soul was trapped inside her body and a ritual can take her soul and put it in another person’s body which is what happens in the game. However, the tale told to us for some reason three times in the film is different. Himiko was chained by her Generals so she could no longer inflict any more damage as she could touch someone and kill them.
This interpretation of the events in the film does away with the magical aspect, offering a much more logical explanation that alters the whole story. Admittedly, I understand why they made this choice, as I don’t think that they would have pulled it off, and it certainly does not work in the Tomb Raider universe, which is a rather serious action movie. However, it means that there is not much else left to explore and so it feels rather disappointing, especially when you consider what transpires in the game.
The newer variation of the video game also lacked a somewhat famous member of the Endurance, Lara’s crew. Other than the character “Mathias” played by Walton Goggins, the film did not include any other characters from the game. The cast is rounded out by Lu Ren (Daniel Wu), Lara’s only crew mate, who helps fill the other gaps as the ship’s captain. In addition to a smaller main cast, with the immediate introduction of Mathias when on Yamatai, Lara gets integrated much quicker to the events which lead up to the main climax. After spending seven years trying to locate the entrance to the Himiko’s tomb, Mathias and Trinity are spurred further when Mathias steals Richard’s notebook from Lara. With her father’s warning unheeded, Lara is left no choice but to eventually agree to opening the tomb for Matheas in a bid to get some closure. The first time I saw it, to be honest, was abstractly disturbing in the sense that it was Lara who actually opened the tomb Unlike the game where everything is reenacted so she just steps in to do everything. Well, she is a tomb raider after all, so I guess makes a good deal of sense that she decides to open one.
This also serves to show the intelligence of both Lara and her father since they are the only two people alive that knew how to open the tomb.
I was initially discouraged to see the story deviate from the game but, as always, it seems to be the best option with regard to adapting it into a film. As good as it would have been to see Lara cut through endless hordes of Trinity guards, it would not be very realistic for a two hour film now would it? In any case, Lara’s fighting with or without weapons is something that will be more prominent in the sequels. Apart from some heavier action, there are two particular iconic scenes that, I believe, could have made it into the film. One would be when Lara washes ashore after the Endurance sank and an islander whacks her on the head, and she wakes up in a tomb, suspended by her ankles. In this case, she is hit on the head by Mathias, which was necessary for their meeting so it makes sense within the context of the cuts to the story. The second scene is the iconic one where Lara swims away from her enemies into a pool of blood, well, blood and some remains and her head slowly emerging from the water.
But, just like any overly action oriented scenes, these need to be within the game’s domain rather than the film’s realm.
Tomb Raider does a good job having sufficient fast-paced thrilling events for this origin film. Lara’s first time killing someone is in self defense, and I can see her mentally eking out with it. She also locates and utilizes a bow, one of her signature weapons, showcasing the archery hobbies she practiced as a child. Besides, with a simple act of climbing, running, and jumping, we suddenly witness Lara pushing her physical boundaries, which is a lot adopted from the game. It really helps develop Lara’s ability to wield various weapons, fight in hand to hand combat, and utilize some of the techniques learned from her boxing lessons. I like the way Tomb Raider takes a very long and critical storyline from the game and makes it into an incredible film. Also, there is no need for us to perceive Lara as overly brutal at this stage, as her life will gradually build to that point. In general, Vikander’s Lara brings the essence, but she can’t if she portrays the emotional depth of her character in the game.
I hope that the sequels filled in the blank parts. The finale opens up an entirely different narrative that could be pursued in the next installment of Lara Croft’s journey.
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