The 2013 reboot seems to have been a case of love it or hate it, but the 2018 movie adaptation is one big meh. Kinda fine and inoffensive as a run of the mill action-adventure movie, and in light of the recent Assassin's Creed, new Hitman and final Resident Evil movies, it's probably the most "dignified" movie adaptation games have had for a while. But nothing shakes off the blandness and mediocrity from the experience.
I hate the casting. I don't know who Alicia Vikander is and she brings nothing to Lara Croft - she's a punchbag with a pretty face and an inordinately oversized forehead. Angie had her bad girl rep and was having fun with it, Alicia is just sort of out of air and always with that worrisome Hermione expression chiselled on her face. I guess that goes with the reboot.
I hated the villain. I've loved Walton Goggins in everything he's been so far, but here he's just as bland as Lara. He's just some dude - no personality, nothing remarkable about him, just a middle management sort of dude whose one moment of villainy is shooting one of his workers - some extra - to establish what a cruel heartless monster he is. This reminded me of the cloud from Futurama zapping the redshirt over and over for a threat. Who gives a shit?
Actually on the subject of the game - maybe it's that it's five times as long as the movie, but there Lara felt truly cut off and isolated and like she had to revert to some primal force to survive. The movie makes things so quick and easy for her that she never goes through any semblance of transformation. She has too many allies and too many lucky coincidences going for her.
Remember the big controversy about how one of the mooks wants to rape Lara in the game (vaguely implied as far as I remember)? No such thing here. These dudes have been wrecked forever in this shit island and the first woman they see in seven years... they just ignore her. Put her to forced labor. Uh-huh. Look I'm not a creep advocating for more rape in movies, I just think it goes against the character of the baddies that you're trying to depict as inhuman monsters "too far gone" with zero accountability and they don't so much as look twice at the first woman, absolutely helpless, they've seen in seven years. I've heard construction workers spout worse just because they're bored and on lunch break.
In a nutshell both the game and the movie are supposed to be about how Lara transforms into a weathered tomb raider and all that but here she faces so little adversity that it's completely lost on her.
And, again, I hated Vikander in the role.
I hate the casting. I don't know who Alicia Vikander is and she brings nothing to Lara Croft - she's a punchbag with a pretty face and an inordinately oversized forehead. Angie had her bad girl rep and was having fun with it, Alicia is just sort of out of air and always with that worrisome Hermione expression chiselled on her face. I guess that goes with the reboot.
I hated the villain. I've loved Walton Goggins in everything he's been so far, but here he's just as bland as Lara. He's just some dude - no personality, nothing remarkable about him, just a middle management sort of dude whose one moment of villainy is shooting one of his workers - some extra - to establish what a cruel heartless monster he is. This reminded me of the cloud from Futurama zapping the redshirt over and over for a threat. Who gives a shit?
Actually on the subject of the game - maybe it's that it's five times as long as the movie, but there Lara felt truly cut off and isolated and like she had to revert to some primal force to survive. The movie makes things so quick and easy for her that she never goes through any semblance of transformation. She has too many allies and too many lucky coincidences going for her.
Remember the big controversy about how one of the mooks wants to rape Lara in the game (vaguely implied as far as I remember)? No such thing here. These dudes have been wrecked forever in this shit island and the first woman they see in seven years... they just ignore her. Put her to forced labor. Uh-huh. Look I'm not a creep advocating for more rape in movies, I just think it goes against the character of the baddies that you're trying to depict as inhuman monsters "too far gone" with zero accountability and they don't so much as look twice at the first woman, absolutely helpless, they've seen in seven years. I've heard construction workers spout worse just because they're bored and on lunch break.
In a nutshell both the game and the movie are supposed to be about how Lara transforms into a weathered tomb raider and all that but here she faces so little adversity that it's completely lost on her.
And, again, I hated Vikander in the role.
