Saw an advanced screening of “Tomb Raider”

So last night in Toronto, Warner Bros. held an advanced screening of “Tomb Raider”.

To start things off, I’ll say it’s good. It isn’t spectacular or mind-blowing, but I believe it will be remembered as one of the better video game movies and it does leave the door open for sequels (which I hope happen)

Alicia Vikander was a great choice for Lara Croft. She’s strong, smart and really fun to watch when she’s kicking ass. There’s one specific fight sequence where Vikander really sells the character of Lara and she does take a number of beatings via nature like in the recent rebooted games, but it’s handled well. They could’ve had her falling off cliffs or hitting trees a lot but they don’t oversaturate us with the Lara vs Nature aspect.

Walton Goggins (who was actually at the theatre to introduce the movie for us) as Matias Vogul is a decent villain, not overly memorable, but good (more the writing as opposed to his performance)

The first act I thought dragged on a bit too long, but once Lara decides to embark on her journey and follow her father’s research, things pick up, and of course, once they reach the island, it moves well. I think the ending, more than the beginning, needed some more breathing time, but it doesn’t affect the conclusion and setup for sequels.

Tom Holkenburg scores the movie, but he doesn’t quite shine with this score like he has in the past with movies like Mad Max: Fury Road or even Deadpool. The music is just kinda there.

The story itself worked well enough. Some might find it a bit similar to the first Raider movie with Jolie in a few spots, but that was bound to happen. I was expecting (and probably my fault) the story to take on a bit more of a supernatural element like the games, but I think WB and Square Enix wanted to play it safe for the first round. It does balance on the whole “science and magic” aspect towards the end, but I liked how it played up both sides of Lara, Richard and Matias’ expectations of what they find in the Tomb.

Overall, it’s a decent action movie and a solid adaptation of the game (though not 1 to 1) without repeating everything beat by beat. I’d like to see a sequel because you can feel the enjoyment Vikander has playing Lara Croft, and I think with refining the next script just a bit more they could really hit something great in terms of video game movies.

If you want spoilers or in-depth answers, I can PM those.

Submitted March 07, 2018 at 10:39PM by Nickerdoodle http://ift.tt/2IaoGRR