She's all sweaty, glistening and flexing her muscles under a suspiciously appropriate lighting. This version of Lara Croft is still somewhat of a low-karma sexual fantasy. Sex is not even considered in Tomb Raider because the situation doesn't call for it, not unlike for Rambo movies.īut let's not kid ourselves. She has this hot Asian co-star and they both keep their pants on without bragging about it. Vikander's Croft is strong-willed, stubborn, fearless and doesn't even come close to fucking any man in the movie, which is great. Because it is definitely there and Alicia Vikander's Lara Croft is aggressively sold to you as the badass female lead you see on the Netflix section of the same name. So, let's talk about the gender politics aspect of Tomb Raider. There is no greater context, you feel emotionally connected to the here and the now. Tomb Raider isn't emotionally deep in the conventional sense of the term, but the constant state of urgency and immediacy Lara is caught in once she reaches the island of Yamatai is reminiscent of how video games make you empathize with their character. Without ever calling attention to itself, there was nods to every gameplay mechanic of a Tomb Raider game throughout the movie: breathtaking platforming sequences (which a scene I believe was swiped from an Uncharted game), firefights with a cover system, puzzle solving, boss battles, etc. So, Tomb Raider captures the kinetic joy of playing a video game better than anything I've seen in movies. That lead him to Queen Himiko and the forbidden island of Yamatai, which might offer answers to young Lara. A puzzle he left behind leads her to a hidden study of his, where he lived a secret life: stricken by grief after the death of his wife, he searched the world for proof of another realm, so he could be with her again. A young, restless and seemingly orphaned Lara Croft ( Alicia Vikander) is looking for her father Richard ( Dominic "Jimmy McNulty" West) who mysteriously disappeared seven years ago. Tomb Raider is loosely adapted from the 2013 video game of the same name, which is more or less of an origin story. ![]() It's one of the best video game adaptations I've had the pleasure of seeing, but it's still filled with problematic choices. ![]() Does the new adaptation starring talented and gorgeous Alicia Vikander get the job done? One of the most successful video game adaptations that direly needed a contextualized reboot was Tomb Raider, a fantastic game series who's tone dramatically changed in the midst of the gamergate and #metoo eras. Their track record obviously isn't great, but there is still a world of unexploited intellectual properties with built-in audiences that scream "PROFIT" out there, so they're not going to stop. Hollywood hasn't given up on turning a profit off video game adaptations.
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