First Take: Tomb Raider- what the hell just happened?

SYNOPSIS: Lara Croft, the fiercely independent daughter of a
missing adventurer, must push herself beyond her limits when she finds herself
on the island where her father disappeared.

A reboot of a beloved gaming franchise is a questionable
decision nowadays, but when Square Enix brought out the more cinematic version
of the most quintessentially British tomb explorer in partnership with Crystal
Dynamics in 2013, we all knew a film was imminent. Unfortunately, the curse of
the video game film has once again struck, and it’s with great sadness that I
have to rant about this one. Strap yourselves in folks, this is going to get
brutal.

Roar Uthaug is the director tasked with taking this game to
the big screen, and while his direction shows promise, the combination of weak
pacing and a poor script from Alistair Siddons and Ginerva Robertson-Dworet
ultimately impacts on the film so much that the 1 hour 58 minute running time
simply drags on. And on. And on. What it lacks for in the quality of the film,
it makes up for with the technical talent- the almighty George Richmond puts in
some great cinematography (this is the man who gave us Kingsman’s immortal
church scene), and Tom ‘Junkie XL’ Holkenborg provides a good score as he
always does- but going from Justice League to this? Come on man.

Performance wise, it’s all about as generic and cliched as
me attempting to make a reference to the legally non-descript cinema where I
see these films at (hello to the team as usual), and while you have great
talents like Alicia Vikander and Dominic West, they aren’t being used to the
best of their ability, and that’s a real shame- especially with a supporting
cast which includes Kristin Scott Thomas, Walton Goggins, Daniel Wu and many others.
This quite frankly is a shame- no, it’s horrific. There are loads of other
films on offer right now, and all of them are better than this.

THE VERDICT

Dull, boring and lacking in any actual meaning, Tomb Raider
is another failed attempt at the video game to film transition, and at points
it reminded me of last year’s take on The Mummy. Sure, the Angelina Jolie
version of this is quite a different proposition, but at least it had some cult
value- this one doesn’t that’s for sure. Not only am I angry, but I am
certainly disappointed. Hollywood, get some original ideas together NOW.

RATING: 2/5