09 March,2018 02:30 PM IST | | Johnson Thomas
Tomb Raider
U/A; Action, Adventure
Cast: Alicia Vikander, Walton Goggins, Dominic West, Daniel Wu, Kristin Scott Thomas, Derek Jacobi, Hannah John-Kamen
Director: Roar Uthaug
Rating:
Alicia Vikander takes over from Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft, the fiercely independent daughter of an eccentric adventurer who vanished years earlier - hoping to solve the mystery of her father's disappearance. Lara Croft's journey to his last-known destination is perilous and the stakes are high enough for her to showcase a great deal of skill and spirit as she treks through a fabled tomb on a mythical island located somewhere off the coast of Japan.
Based on the 2013 version of the video game (of course) but written with an earthy humanistic bent by screenwriters Geneva Robertson-dworet, Alastair Siddons, this Lara Croft is entirely human with failings -very unlike Angelina Jolie's superhuman avatar. Jolie's two films were far more gamey, campy and unreal than this one. Here Croft has the aid of alcoholic fisherman Lu Ren (Daniel Wu) in her search. Her perseverance is a lot like the old one but Vikander's version gets wounded, feels pain and cannot perform incredible stunts. It's a welcome change no doubt- but one that doesn't quite have any distinguishing characteristic as such. The father-daughter relationship is portrayed as sweetly affectionate, through a series of flashbacks that uses discovered notes as a link-up meant to justify the adventure as a whole. Norwegian director Roar Uthaug plays single-mindedly to that family dynamic- entirely avoiding personality clashes and incendiary histrionics.
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Lara, a member of the English aristocracy, goes about her day job as a bicycle messenger in all-too-common fashion. So while the dialogues repeatedly highlight her aristocratic credentials Vikander's Lara gets down and dirty with an ease that can only be generated by experience. In fact, the lead character is not a well-developed one and that's where this film fails. There's enough compassion, grit and entertainment to be had here though with Uthaug blending in some of the iconic sequences from the game without making it look all unreal and contrived. The action looks realistic and that's a plus too. The performances are also largely life-like- so there's much more solid reason to watch this one!
Also Read: Alicia Vikander And Director Roar Uthaug's Common Connect
Watch the trailer of Tomb Raider
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