Tomb Raider (2018)

Written by CinemaSerf on September 17, 2022

Alicia Wikander picks up where Angelina Jolie left off and after about fifteen minutes, I am fairly certain that she would have wished she had left well alone completely. I certainly wished she had. She is "Lara Croft", left a fortune after her industrialist/explorer father mysteriously disappears. Seven years on, decisions have to be made and she finds herself stumbling over clues that might lead to answers about where pop (Dominic West) disappeared to. That takes her on a series of sterile, well-choreographed, escapades with loads of "Indiana Jones" style adventures, stunts, fight scenes and shoot outs with bows and arrows and guns alike. Fortunately, her newfound foes couldn't hit a cow on the tit with a tin cup most of the time. Except, maybe the mean and moody "Vogel" (Walton Goggins) who at least looks like he is enjoying himself a bit throughout this otherwise unimaginative reimagining. Dame Kristin Scott Thomas and Sir Derek Jacobi must have had tax bills to pay as they show up for a few scenes at the beginning and a few more near the end as the dastardly ploy thickens, but the rest of this - at almost two hours - is really pretty procedural and disappointing. The production looks fine, but somehow the whole thing just never quite gets out of second gear.