Been there before.
After the pain of Super Mario Bros., Street Fighter, and Assassins Creed, the new film version of Tomb Raider is supposed to break the curse of the bad video game movie adaptation. I can say now, with conviction, that there are no good video game movies.
All this is a shiny new package with a stale interior. Much of the plot is the same sort of corny hokum that was the basis of the Angelina Jolie films over a decade ago. We learn, once again, that the wealthy English tycoon Richard Croft (Dominic West) abandoned his daughter Lara to search for a mysterious tomb that if once opened, could unleash a literal hell on earth. After several years, Lara (Alicia Vikander) sets of to locate her father and of course – and the tomb. Of course there are bad guys, plenty of wisecracks and pulse pounding adventure scenes. The standard checklist for films like this.
The film is filled with CGI wonders that we have seen before. It’s paced fairly quickly, mainly for the video game crowd who are used to cuts every few seconds and the last 30 minutes resemble a Spielberg-Lite mish mash of all the Indiana Jones films that fail to be anything more then predictable. Every supporting character is thinly written; the main villain (Walton Goggins) is your standard bad guy and aside from the spunky Vikander, who does her best to bring life to this stale endeavor, there is little to recommend here.
Next up, Rampage with the Rock. Let’s see if that one breaks the curse.
