Tomb Raider Movie...yay

I have talked about video game movies a couple of different times now. Ranging from general movies to a specific movie, and even to a video game winning an oscar. Well, another video game movie is looming over the horizon, and this ugly beast is taking shape of Lara Croft. That's right, another Tomb Raider movie.

Before getting into this, I want to give my entire background with the series. As of now, I have only played the two new games. I haven't played any of the old games or seen any of the old movies. But I will say I played the new games recently, so the two games are still pretty fresh in my head.

I first heard about the new film on Twitter only a couple of days before the trailer. The announcement was a poster, some pictures, and a fifteen second clip. I went into the trailer with very little hope. Knowing the consistency of bad video game movies, I already knew this wasn't going to be good, even with big actors. After watching the trailer, I came out of it...even less hopeful. I don't know about you guys, but I thought it looked pretty bad.Not long after, the full trailer dropped; and even though it looked a little better, I still think this is a no-go.

Why do I think this is bad? Also, didn't I say that Ready Player One was going to be good? Yeah, well, I want to take back the Ready Player One thing and say that all though it won't be the best film, it will still be a fun one to watch. Anyways, back to me trash talking this film and maybe getting two strikes in a row on movie opinions.

I think of all the video games that could have a good movie counterpart. While that list is small, I still think their is a list to consider. Last of us, Bioshock, Uncharted(this one is in early production), and others. Heck, I even want another battle royale film, so why not slap a PUBG sticker onto it. It wouldn't be a unique film or the best film, but it's something. But one game I haven't been thinking of is Tomb Raider. Why? Because they already happened. Now I think the recent games are a lot of fun and have a good plot and setting to it, but the series has already had its movie spotlight with two separate films(and surprise, they are under 25% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes). I'm sure this new movie will be better than the previous two, but that isn't to say that I wanted Lara to be seen in a better light, or even if it is going to be good.

The second biggest issue I had with the film is the look. For some reason, I got really caught on how the film looked, and I really didn't like it. I honestly think that the film looks like higher quality Youtube fan film more than a film meant for the big screen. At best, it looks like a basic action film. Even the pictures and the poster look mediocre to me. This could just be a budgeting issue, but who knows.

Finally, the plot. Normally, this would be much higher on my list of importance, but knowing video game movies the plot and characters go down the drain(dystopian mario anyone?) But I was honestly surprised to find a good resemblance to the first film. It even had some scenes that exactly matched up to scenes in the game. I was impressed. Now knowing that this will be very similar to the first game, I started to look at the holes in the plot. And despite liking the close resemblance, I think some of the plot changes bring it down a bit. Now this is just a trailer, and things will probably be different, but the way they painted some of the story elements got me a bit worried about how they will handle the plot. From the looks of it, it seems that Mathias was sent by Trinity to the island, which in reality was that he was stranded from all of the storms. I say that because the henchmen also don't look very stranded, and the set up of the camp looks like they just got their and started excavating instead of being their for years. It's either that or the reference to Trinity was for nothing and the looks are all just wrong. Also, their was a lack of the other characters as well as the addition of a new character. It could just be that the trailer didn't show them, but I don't see them in the cast list. Also, the addition of this character is kinda weird. I liked the actor from his role in Into the Badlands, but I don't feel great about his character.

One final thing is the physics. Obviously, its for entertainment's sake, but watching her jump that far in multiple scenes is funnily bad. But hey, like video game, like movie.

Their a couple of reasons why I would maybe rent the film. Such a close resemblance to the first game(still fresh in my memory) as well as such actors as Nick Frost and Daniel Wu give me a reason to maybe go see it if someone is paying for me. But with the previous Lara Croft movies, the meh look, and the holes in the plot keep me pretty far away from the film. Nothing can be said for sure until the film actually releases, but I am going to put in my guess and say that this will be just as good as any other video game film.

lets see how it pans out

Not a great director either.

I can't unsee the neck now, even the head looks too big. It looks like all of it is fake, but then they sort of lazily slapped her real head onto it.

@nodeath: And that only makes it worse! Now I'm just gonna think of giraffe Lara whenever I see this poster!

I'm still waiting for a video game movie to beat Wreck-It Ralph. Still the best video game movie ever in my eyes.

It looks fine or okay at best, but in-comparison to the other video game movies I guess that puts this ahead of them. Hitman is probably the best one so far and that movie is pretty average. Tomb Raider could work as a movie, a female Indiana Jones basically, but it's not like the character or its story are that interesting. Something story driven like God of War or Bioshock would be better material to make into a movie if they're in the right hands. Tomb Raider as a character and the story the games tell aren't that great. I like the actress in Deus ex Machina, but she kinda seems like a discount Emilia Clarke here for some reason and because of Deus and other stuff I've seen her in she seems villainous to me. Some actors just look like the bad guy. The Shape of Water almost seems like a Bioshock movie (from the first trailer) and that will probably be way better than this.

Ready Player One's trailers was pretty lame to me... I like the concept but it seemed like another CG fest. Kinda reminded of Tron in concept and visually, but at least Tron Legacy had a lot of visual and audio style/personality, RPO's trailer seemed generic.

It looks bad but, hey, I would rather go in thinking it looks bad and be surprised than go in thinking it looks great and be disappointed.

The action scenes look fake. It's gonna be mediocre, like the embarrassing torture game it's based on. At least she won't be crying and moaning through half the adventure, though.

I like her best at the end of the trailer, with the braided pony tail, the two pistols and the cockiness, but you can tell she won't be that Lara Croft until the end of the movie. And then the sequel will forget it just like Rise of the Tomb Raider forgot about the dual pistols at the end of Tomb Raider.

So Tomb Raider's the most 'spot on' videogame movie franchise, then. I was thinking this when my dad was watching one of them the other week. Lara's character in the classic ones has always been a cartoon power fantasy. They transfer that to screen, for better and worse, to the letter. Makes me realise how much of a sarcastic bitch she is, as well. She straight-up enjoys murder and it's the only thing that gives her life meaning because she was born into privilege. She's a psychopath.

And now the reboot gives the character a fresh start with the same privilege but a lack of confidence which means she's less of a bastard. And the movie looks like it's copying that transition.