One of the most eagerly awaited movies of the year is no doubt Roar Uthaug’s Tomb Raider, which is based on the best-selling and obviously quite popular video game of the same name.
Of course, it’s unlikely that any video game fan worth his salt hasn’t played a Tomb Raider game before, in particular 2013’s reboot game by developer Crystal Dynamics, which was quite good actually.
As a matter of fact 2013 Tomb Raider surely is one of the best games in the franchise to date, so it is not so surprising that movie director Roar Uthaug (who was also behind the pretty good disaster flick The Wave) has admitted to looking at that game for inspiration, and Tomb Raider’s latest trailer sure is proof of that.
Actually, like in the 2013 game, protagonist Lara Croft and her crew end up on a mysterious island after a shipwreck. There she will be facing a mysterious organization known as Trinity, which is run by a rather unsavoury guy played by Walton Goggins.
Trinity was the evil organization Lara had to deal with in the game too, although they are not after an ancient all-powerful item here, but have a more sinister goal in mind: starting a global genocide (which obviously doesn’t sound good).
This trailer also shows the iconic heroine wielding her favourite weapon (the bow) and raiding tombs as you would expect her to as well.
Much has been made of Alicia Vikander’s casting in the Lara Croft role, is she the right actress for the role? I personally have my doubts, because while the Swedish actress no doubt is an attractive woman and obviously talented (she picked up an Academy Award for her role in 2015’s The Danish Girl) I am not sure he petite physique and innocent looks are quite right for the part.
Also, I’m slightly worried by the fact this comes across as any other action movie, and doesn’t feel special like a Tomb Raider film should. Actually, if nobody told me this was a trailer for a Tomb Raider movie I wouldn’t be able to distinguish it from the countless action movie trailers doing the rounds these days.
Granted, neither of the earlier Tomb Raider movies starring Angelina Jolie were masterpieces of cinema either, but you could tell right off the bat that these were Tomb Raider films due to their tone and atmosphere, while Roar Uthaug’s movie has such a generic feel about it.
Of course, judging a yet unreleased movie by a 2 minute trailer is always a risky thing to do, and personally I’m hoping this will turn out to be a film worthy of the Tomb Raider name when it hits theatres in March this year.
Tomb Raider (Warner Bros.)