Tomb Raider is an action adventure movie and is directed by "Roar Uthaug". The first act is an action adventure drama which is very light on the action, while the second act adds fantasy to the mix and the action is a bit more, but again not too much. It's the first half that is my favorite, though both are really good. Lara Croft only becomes the tomb raider in the second half, but I liked the first because of all the cinematography and the bike stunts, as well as the scenes in Hong Kong, and the initial scenes in the island up until the waterfall.
This movie is a reboot of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider series, and is also inspired by the Tomb Raider video game. "Alicia Vikander" plays Lara Croft in a much realistic way than "Angelina Jolie" did. The previous seres was more action and less adventure, eventually dragging and making the action repetitive. The reboot is much more . The prime storyline of both movies are similar though.
Tomb Raider is very much fun to watch, and the movie has Lara Croft running around like a superhero. But if you are wondering if Lara Croft is a superhero, then no she is not. She is as real as real can be. In this crazy age where there are a lot of superhero movies dominating the box office, it's nice to see something different. I'm not saying Tomb Raider is perfect because it has its downsides as well, but it's just as exceptional as the other superhero movies, maybe even better.
It is her private life that makes the movie interesting. The movie starts with Lara wanting to make money, in order to train better for boxing. This is coming from a woman who lives in a manor and has a huge inheritance which will make her the owner of her dad's company "Croft Holdings". Lara decides to make her own money instead and becomes a bike courier instead. But when she needs to get a huge amount of money to get herself inside for the next installment, a nice opportunity arrises itself. Lara finds herself running along the London streets with a "fox tail" in the back of her bike, and declares herself as the fox, just to earn a heft cash prize. Lara is chased by other bikers while she finds herself distracted with the memory of her dad.
Speaking of her dad, Richard Croft ("Dominic West") is currently the owner of Croft Holdings. That is, if he is alive. Lara who is curious by nature is willing to do anything to find Richard. She goes to Hong Kong after selling her necklace, and is attacked by thieves. There is quite some great action here, and "Alicia Vikander" performs some realistic stunts while escaping the thieves. When she is cornered by the thieves, Lara finds Lu Ren ("Daniel Wu"). Her true purpose of coming to Hong Kong was to find Lu. Lu's father had shared a boat with Lara's boat on a trip to a mysterious island named "Yamatai" in the middle of "The Devil's Sea", and both of them are missing. Lara convinces Lu on a trip to Yamatai on his cruise ship to find their dads.
The later half of the movie is very similar to the "Indiana Jones" movies. Richard had done some research on Himiko before leaving Lara. The legend of Himiko says that Himiko was the first queen of Japan, and a dark witch who could spread death by touching others. By mere luck she was stopped, and an army of her own generals bound and dragged Himiko to an uninhabitable island in Yamatai. Later after opening the tomb, Lara finds that Himiko sacrificed herself so that no-one shall enter the chamber and open the tomb, a mistake that they made.
Richard has left many clues for Lara to so solve. When she does solve them she is supposed to destroy them so that they don't get into the wrong hands. Of course he could have destroyed it himself, so I'm not sure if they mean it like that or if the screenwriters got it wrong. The clue was the one on Himiko, which Lara would only have found if she solved the puzzle box, and it ends up with Vogel. If Lara was capable of solving the puzzle box, then she has the skills required to go inside the chamber. She is already quite adept at physical skills, which include boxing and archery. Against her father's advice, she agrees with her nemesis and opens the chamber, just to get out of the island. And these skills do help her inside, because the way to the tomb inside the chamber contains a lot of booby traps, much like a remodeled version in Indiana Jones.
Quite the antagonist the movie presents itself. Lara's nemesis Mathias Vogel ("Walton Goggins") hasn't been the smartest villain I've seen, or he would have gotten off the island long ago. He is working for a secret unnamed person. He has many people working for him, and ruthlessly kills any inefficient worker. He has Lara and Lu working for him, up until Lu gets Lara a chance to escape. The cinematography of the escape scene is extremely realistic, and I'm not sure how much CGI is used, if any. At least, until the plane and the waterfall. Oh yeah, this is when Lara finds that her father is alive. And he's a mess.
Quite the antagonist the movie presents itself. Lara's nemesis Mathias Vogel ("Walton Goggins") hasn't been the smartest villain I've seen, or he would have gotten off the island long ago. He is working for a secret unnamed person. He has many people working for him, and ruthlessly kills any inefficient worker. He has Lara and Lu working for him, up until Lu gets Lara a chance to escape. The cinematography of the escape scene is extremely realistic, and I'm not sure how much CGI is used, if any. At least, until the plane and the waterfall. Oh yeah, this is when Lara finds her father as well. And he's a mess.
But Lara's father was right. Going inside the chamber was the gateway for damnation. It was "World War Z", because touching Himiko will get the person infected. Barely anyone made it out alive anyways. Vogel took a finger of Himiko in his pocket because he wanted to get out of the island, and he nearly makes it. Lara meanwhile make a big unrealistic jump which I'm pretty sure is CGI. That was the only unrealistic scene I could find, apart from the probable zombie apocalypse.
The movie uses little CGI, and I'm really proud of it. Most of the movie uses either practical effects or usually no effects, especially since most of her scenes are filmed without any effects. But the practical effects used are really great, and the scenes are shot very well. This is something which is rare in a blockbuster movie in the 2018s.
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