Film You've seen this movie before (but that isn't necessary a bad thing).
Tomb Raider (2018) is a decent film and one of the better video game adaptation films out there, but that's probably because you've seen those kinds of movies (or played some games like it) before.
The beginning of the film might drag on for a bit if you're a fan of the series and has played the games before. The prologue in London establishes who Lara Croft is and her relationship with her father. Problem is they kinda go overboard with it too much, with the film providing the reveal that Trinity is the bad guys even before Lara can get to the island, which is supposed to be one of the twists in the game itself.
And of course, when Lara got to the island, it basically becomes a mix of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Lara finds her estrangled father, but he berates her for bringing the journal that the bad guys needed to the island, then they work together to stop them and the story's MacGuffin turns out to be a deadly disease stuck in a body in a coffin which the bad guys wanted to turn into a weapon. There are several times, that you'd be forgiven if you thought you aren't watching a Tomb Raider film at the moment. At least the older TR movies starring Angelina Jolie have original stories that could stand on their own, flawed direction or otherwise.
Also, with the movie having Himiko gone under Adaptational Wimp, it also introduces a plot hole that comes with it. In the game, Himiko is responsible for the bad weather around the island that can destroy ships and strand the survivors on it, but now apparently the storm is just a natural thing in the Devil's Triangle. [[spoiler: The end of the film sees a Trinity helicopter having no trouble flying in and out of the island from above the clouds, which provides a question of why didn't Trinity just send more people and better equipments to Mathias from the air to help speed up the excavation instead of just stranding him on the island for seven years running into dead-ends again and again using just forced labors from stranded sailors.
I particularly liked the character of Lu Ren, despite his rather minor role in the film. He serves as a good sidekick to Lara and in some cases her equal in the film. Also, making Richard Croft an Adaptational Badass is a pleasant twist from the games. Mathais himself is also less of an Obviously Evil now and actually has understanding motives of doing what he does. In fact, I find myself enjoy the side characters of this film more than Lara herself.
All in all, Tomb Raider (2018) is a fun time if you're fan of the games, but don't expect anything groundbreaking in this movie. It does its best to cater to the fans of the games but sometimes go overboard with it too much, with blatant Sequel Hook moments both in the beginning and the ending of the film.
6.5/10
Film Still not the video game movie we need
Tomb Raider is a movie franchise reboot based on the video game series reboot. Darker, grittier, more realistic. I guess that's just the standard trend these days.
Is it a bad film? Not particularly. It has a few small issues, but nothing outstandingly horrible.
But is it a good film? Not particularly. There's nothing in there to make it memorable.
And that's the problem. It's so perfectly... average. It's a film you watch to waste your time, and only because you've already watched all good movies twice now.
The game series was probably the most ripe for making a movie. We have a character who's been given a backstory, and a fairly interesting one at that. Origin stories are always nice, there's built-in character development if they do it correctly.
However, they seem to try too hard with imagery and not with logic. Especially when the main character is praised for her critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Like, when a bad guy drops his gun, why doesn't she pick it up? Is she that confident with her bow and arrow? It was an iconic weapon for the game, because she basically had to start from scratch on an uninhabited island. But for this particular plotline... well, it ends with her threatening helicopter pilots (who are in an enclosed military chopper) with a bow and arrow. It looks a little silly. And that's one of the problems.
The pacing's a little slow at the beginning, we start with some random action scenes and a bike chase that we know isn't going to have anything to do with the main plot. It's about 20 minutes just to let us know that Lara is athletic. Meh.
The middle is a little cliche - you know, they're caught in a storm and are shipwrecked on the island, but somehow the rest of the movie is in beautiful sunshine. Meh.
It really does things by the numbers and things don't flow together all that well. It's just "meh" throughout.
It's a completely okay movie, but not the kind of movie that will convince people that "video game movies" are worth watching, in the way Batman Begins or Iron Man did for comic book movies. Right now I'm not even convinced we need another "Tomb Raider" franchise.