If we were guaranteed a sequel, then this might be forgivable. Slight spoilers, but this Lara Croft (like Angelina Jolie’s Lara Croft as well as Jem from Jem and the Holograms) needs the approval of her dead dad before she can be the iconic hero we all came to see. The next two acts, even with a few moments of grand action and unflinching violence, gets bogged down by a renewed emphasis on a seemingly dead character. The first third is origin story schtick, but it’s entertaining thanks to Vikander’s lively performance, eccentric supporting characters (the pawn shop folks are a trip) and a terrific bike chase. Tomb Raider does its best to have it both ways. Thor and Black Panther presented origin stories that began with the fully-formed costumed hero, with an arc showing them “earning” the mantle that they were otherwise entitled to via birthright. Even Man of Steel and Wonder Woman spend the first hour setting the table for the costumed hero to emerge and do their superheroic thing, and then they let the rest of the film play out with a first adventure/character-specific conflict. Ditto the likes of Spider-Man, Star Trek and Casino Royale. The other is a feature-length prologue.Įven an “origin story” like Ant-Man gives you two-thirds of a movie with Paul Rudd in the Ant-Man suit doing Ant-Man stuff. One blends an origin story and a fully-formed hero in a stand-alone tale. That’s the difference between Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins and Batman Begins. Do they want to see how these heroes came to be, or do they just want to see them “being”?ĭo they want Fantastic Four, which thrice now (via Roger Corman, Tim Story and Josh Trank) retold the same origin story only to end with the superhero family in their core personas for the epilogue, or do they want Rise of the Silver Surfer, which offered a “this week’s grand adventure” sequel? If you’re going the origin story route, you should make sure that audiences get what they paid for within the movie. As Hollywood revamps or revives its properties or attempts to create new franchises from “new-to-cinema” IP, there needs to be a serious conversation about what audiences want from these movies. You wouldn’t have to wait for the sequel that might never come to get the full-fledged Tomb Raider action flick that you came to see because that “sequel” would be the first one out of the gate. Imagine a new Tomb Raider franchise that plunged headlong into the adventure, offering Vikander’s Croft as a somewhat seasoned raider-of-tombs/adventurer. By being a sequel, it (hopefully) won’t be hampered by origin story tropes and daddy issues. Tomb Raider ends on a note where audiences may well want to see Vikander’s Croft in another adventure. Whether you think that Tomb Raider was a merely serviceable action drama or a true heir apparent to Raiders of the Lost Ark, the film’s lead character is a keeper. The good news is that Alicia Vikander is darn terrific as Lara Croft, offering a three-dimensional young woman who is just as much fun when she’s interacting with her supporting cast as she is shooting arrows at bad guys or racing through the jungle.
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