In 2001 Angelina Jolie brought Lara Croft to life on the big screen. Seventeen years later it’s Alicia Vikander’s turn in the latest Hollywood reboot experiment. Warning, spoilers ahead…
Immediately one of the biggest differences from its predecessors is how much more prominent Lara’s father Richard Croft (Dominic West) plays in the story. Because she refuses to declare her missing father of 7 years, dead, Lara lives a carefree if not reckless life as a bike messenger. Following an accident that leads to her arrest, Lara has her bail posted by her father’s business partner, Ana Miller (Kristin Scott Thomas). Ana urges Lara to claim her inheritance or see her father’s estate be sold off. Lara complies. As she gains access to her father’s office, she finds several messages and clues to his disappearance. One such message detailed his research into Himiko, a mythical Queen with the power to control life and death. Richard warns Lara to destroy all his research so that they don’t fall into the wrong hands. Lara ignores his warning and begins to investigate on her own.
Following a lead, Lara travels to Hong Kong and hires Lu Ren (Daniel Wu) to take her to island that her father believes is the location of Himiko’s tomb. The ship however capsizes and Lara ends up being washed ashore where is found by Mathias Vogel (Walton Goggins), the leader of the expedition to uncover the tomb. This expedition is funded by a secret organization called Trinity who want to harness the mythical power for their own sinister purpose. Vogel takes her prisoner and has Lara work as a digger along with hundreds of other fisherman including Lu Ren, who also survived the capsizing.
With Ren’s help, Lara is able to escape. After killing a Trinity guard, she spots a mysterious figure and follows him to a nearby cave. Lara discovers that this mysterious figure happens to be her missing father. As he tends to her wounds she received from the escape, Richard tires to convince Lara to abandon her quest to go after Vogel and recover his research. Lara sets off and makes contact with Ren and together along with the other fisherman stage a distraction at camp that allows Lara to retrieve her father’s research. Meanwhile, Richard goes to the tomb but is captures by Vogel who convinces Lara to help open the tomb or watch her father die.
After evading a series of booby traps, Lara, Vogel and Richard find the remains of Himiko. As two of Vogel’s men try to remove her corpse, they become infected with a virus and die. Vogel sees that removing the body isn’t possible, decides to cut off a finger and seals it in a pouch to bring back home. Lara and Richard are able to overpower the remaining soldiers but Vogel escapes. In the fight, Richard becomes infected with the virus. With no cure, Richard decides to destroy Himiko’s tomb to prevent the virus spreading across the world. Father and daughter say their final goodbyes and Lara goes after Vogel. The two fight and Lara gains the upper-hand by force feeding Vogel Himiko’s finger infecting him and thus killing him. She is then rescued by Ren and along with the fishermen, leaves the island.
Lara returns home and accepts her inheritance. In doing so though she discovers that one of Croft’s Holdings is a company that is a front for the Trinity. As she further investigates, she suspects that Ana Miller may be an agent of the Trinity which would explain her pushing for Lara to sign over control of Croft Holdings to her. In the end, we see Lara at a pawn shop sporting her signature guns of choice as she vows to take down the Trinity.
Directed by: Roar Uthaug
Starring: Alicia Vikander, Dominic West, Walton Goggins, Daniel Wu and Kristin Scott Thomas
PG-13 118 mins
TOMB RAIDER – ***1/2 (out of 5 stars)
May the Dork be with you,
JPB
The Dork Knight
