So I get that a lot of people consider video game based movies to all be bad but that's honestly a stereotype I've never fully understood. The first Mortal Kombat is good, the first Hitman movie with Timothy Olyphant was good, I even thought Warcraft was a fun movie. So just know that I have liked some video game movies in the past and don't consider Tomb Raider to be the first good one, I do feel that it's the first great one!
I thought the Angelina Jolie Tomb Raider movies were fun, especially the first one, but they didn't have the emotional connection that I like to have with characters. You get that Lara was a scarred child because her father died when she was young but that's about as far as it went with that version of the character and I wanted more than that. I wanted more than just a character who's main draw was that she was attractive. Lara Croft is so much more than that. Then 2013 rolled around and we got the reboot of the game.
I don't fall in love with games very often to the point that I want to play them multiple times. Like I loved NieR: Automata but I don't have a strong desire to replay a game like that much. I played the Tomb Raider reboot on the PS3, PS4, and Xbox One and I'm going to play it again in the lead up to Shadow of the Tomb Raider coming out this year. That game nailed how I wanted Lara to be portrayed. She got the hell beat out of her and she got up every time and did what she had to do to survive. Then 2 years later Rise of the Tomb Raider came out and it's one of my favorite games of all time! It gave me the characters and open world of the first and added on an awesome story and the best female protagonist in a game outside of Aloy in Horizon Zero Dawn.
Now that I've said all that about the old movies and the recent games, let's talk about this new movie.
I heard that a new Tomb Raider movie was being made and I was excited but hesitate at the same time. But when I heard that they were using the new games as inspiration then I probably got too excited. I saw that they cast Alicia Vikander as Lara and I thought she was perfect! She had the look Lara had in the recent games. And then I saw Dominic West and Walter Goggins were in it I thought this was going to be legit cause I love The Affair and Justified was an amazing show! So now the cast was in place but how was it going to look. I saw the reveal trailer and loved it! I wasn't crazy about the Survivor cover song in it but what I was looking at I loved.
Now having seen the movie I can say that it's one of my favorite movies of the year and I can't see it being moved out of my personal top 10! Even if it gets pushed down to number 10, I won't remove it! This is not just an action movie, it's an adventure movie. It takes it's time to develop who Lara is and the people around her. I especially loved the scenes with her dad (Dominic West). They even look like each other so that was phenomenal casting!
The story is all about Lara trying to find out what happened to her dad and going to the island that he was last trying to get to. It actually follows the plot of the first game pretty closely. It takes a few liberties and the ending is totally different but the groundwork is the same. I won't go into the plot too much cause I don't want to give anything away in case you haven't played the game. It's very Indiana Jones!
The way the movie is shot is great and they get awesome wide shots of the island. The writing is good, the music is great, and the acting is on point! I got legit emotional while watching this movie during certain scenes and did not expect that at all! I believed what they were telling/showing me. I loved all the puzzles that they showed and it felt like segments out of the game without feeling lame. Walter Goggins plays a very believable villain and there are scenes when he questions his motives and you get to see a human side to evil that is rarely seen in movies like this.
There are a few negatives but not many for me. I kinda do with they just rated the movie R because there are some pretty gruesome deaths and it would've been cool to see them just go for it. The games are rated M so they could've! Some scenes felt a tad rushed. Like one scene has Lara escaping and they just throw us into her escaping like it was so easy and I would've like more struggle there. This is a bit of a spoiler so if you don't want to read this just go to the next paragraph, but I wish they would've gone into the supernatural stuff like the first game. Having a huge undead Samurai would've been awesome!
The last thing I want to say about this movie is about Alicia Vikander playing Lara. I know that saying someone was perfect at something is cliche at this point but, she was perfect! I didn't think someone could pull off a better Lara than the recent games did but she did it. She is Lara Croft and I hope to God they make a sequel to this movie! I was bummed that it didn't get number 1 this past weekend but oh well.
I loved this movie and if you are in the mood for a good adventure movie then go see it! Go see it in theaters and buy it when it comes out if you liked it. Cause that's how we can get another one! I'm all in on this movie going forward!
Thanks for reading and I hope you all have a good one!
Comments
Post a Comment