Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Directors: Roar Uthaug, Roadshow Entertainment.
Cast: Alicia Vikander, Daniel Wu, Walton Goggins, Dominic West.
Latest personification of a character who’s been around for more than two decades, Tomb Raider is based on a 2013 video game that works with confidence.
Female heroine is as smart as she is lethal. Lara Croft (Vikander, Submergence, Jason Bourne, Burnt) is the intensely self-reliant daughter of an adventurer who vanished some years ago.
He had a specific quest: to locate Himiko’s tomb at the call of the shadowy Trinity organisation. Hoping to solve the mystery of her father’s disappearance, Croft embarks on a hazardous journey to his last-known destination: a fabled tomb on a mythical island that might be somewhere off the coast of Japan. The stakes are high as Lara must rely on her sharp mind, blind faith and immovable spirit to venture into the unknown.
Lu Ren (Wu) is the alcoholic sea captain who ferries Lara to the island that contains Himiko’s tomb. The bad guy, archaeologist-turned-corporate-mercenary Mathias Vogel (Goggins), is himself an absentee husband and father.
Lara does a lot of running, and she’s supremely fit, pausing to hit targets with a bow and arrow. She defeats in hand-to-hand combat and solves a tumbler-styled puzzle that will open the stone door of a temple containing ancient treasures. She then goes on to embrace her destiny as heir to her father’s wealthy legacy.
Lara is an emotional person who has empathy for others and feels things deeply.
Paternal neglect and its aftermath are at the heart of every character’s story here. Similarities can be found with Ren and Vogel.
Uthaug (The Wave) directs some great action sequences including a fox hunt on bicycles through the streets of London and diving off a cliff into a raging river.
It’s a beautifully crafted and unpretentious piece of action cinema, with a number of sequences that are as gorgeous as they are thrilling.
