Vectorman

Alicia Vikander Steals The Show

So continuing on this theme of watching brainless lets say flicks not drivel, decided to watch Tomb Raider. For a moment or two thought maybe it was going to be half decent. The actress who plays Lara Croft is good, looks the part is clearly extremely fit in all senses of the word.. She’s athletic, strong does all that is required of her physically with pure gusto and has a good screen presence. Something which has spoiled many a film of this ilk is when they simply haven’t hired someone who looks the part and can be all of the above. Alicia Vikander ticks all the boxes here and ain’t half bad of an actress either (shame about her pig awful dad). But the problem is she has bugger all to work with.

Promised So Much, Yet Delivered So Little

A shame as there was early signs of promise as you get to see Lara in for a change, a fairly ordinary environment interacting with people in a fairly ordinary way. See the major issue with Lara as a character is, well she has none basically lol. It’s never been the most in depth of games character or story wise. Tomb Raider is about the action being the hero and little else besides, so when it comes to making a film based on the franchise it doesn’t translate to well to the big screen. If you ain’t the one in control of her actions it just shows up what a shallow world Lara Croft stems from.

Raiders of The Lost Tomb

Not only that the action is a strange beast, the pacing is all over the shop. The action sequences tend to be very short lived affairs with at times extremely ropy special effects. The story is humdrum not particularly captivating, nor are the cast of characters who all seem far more befitting a game ironically enough. Don’t know if it’s my imagination or not but for me Tomb Raider simply doesn’t work as a film, not thus far. You know things are bad when the trailer pretty much shows you all you need to see. Alicia Vikander is cool the film less so, it reminded me of a poor man’s Indiana Jones..

Don’t get me wrong it’s not totally without merit, it just seems a waste of an opportunity for what could have been a female equivalent franchise to Indiana Jones.. There was the perfect opportunity in film form to expand upon the game world and to bring much needed depth to Lara as a character. They have failed to deliver in this respect which is an awful awful shame, This is in essence a glorified cut-scene, one which will have you likely craving to control Mrs Croft once again rather than watch this film, no bad thing perhaps… At least it’s comparable to Kingdom of The Crystal Skull, that’s something I guess lol