Tomb Raider (2018) - reviewed.

It took me a while to check out this movie, mostly because it was another unneeded reboot of a popular franchise that wasn’t even that old yet.

Angelina Jolie was the face of that character for so long that it felt strange seeing someone else do it (though I think Alicia Vikander may have done a better job).

I kind of avoided it out of protest. But I saw it for free recently (that’s always the best price). It was ok.

It was a nice set-up for a franchise — the ‘how Lara Croft became Lara Croft’ tale. That would’ve worked well had anyone wanted a new franchise or had Tomb Raider been successful enough to warrant a second film.

Unfortunately these days, writers are always planning on trilogies and franchises. They don’t put enough effort into the beginning movie.

That’s kind of how this movie played out.

It wasn’t bad. Alicia Vikander did a great job actually. Her obvious dedication to the role and believability made the movie much better than it otherwise would have been with a different lead actress.

She was in great shape and appeared to have done at least some of her own stunts.

I first saw her in Man from U.N.C.L.E. (a movie I wanted a sequel of!) and was very impressed. Vikander also delivered on Tomb Raider.

She really looked like a daughter who desperately wanted to find her believed-to-be-dead father. She seemed to have that pain in her eyes that says ‘it’s unrealistic to expect that he’s alive’ with just an ounce of hope that he could be. The movie was a little too much.

It was filled with action-packed scenes, no doubt, but sometimes less is more

We saw a MMA training session, a bicycle race through the streets of London, a creative pursuit of thieves on a Chinese oceanside dock, and a scene where a boat gets tossed around in the stormy water.

That was all before we met the villain of the movie — Mathias Vogel (Walton Goggins) — who runs a slave island because his boss (who he communicates with on a mysterious cell phone) won’t let him leave until he finds a specific fabled tomb.

Then we get a chase through the forest, a fall over a waterfall, a jungle fight to the death, a major discovery for Lara Croft, a rise up and bow-and-arrow fight on the part of Croft and, finally, the scene with the actual tomb.

The scenes were all well-done really. They were definitely action-packed. It was all just a little too much.

The story just didn't resonate.  It was too unbelievable.  It was too much.

Lots of flash but not enough substance to make it worthwhile. There were a couple of head shaking / facepalm moments.

The script was too silly to be taken seriously, even if you want to support the character

The ending foreshadowed a sequel we’ll never get to see, which may be for the best.

Vikander is awesome and the writers delivered on a movie full of action, but if this is the best story they could come up with, then a sequel isn’t really warranted


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