Last time we saw Lara Croft on a big screen, Angelina Jolie played the video game adventuress with as much intensity as a department store mannequin could muster. This time, Lara is depicted by one of this decade’s most promising actresses, Swedish-born Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina). Her talented isn’t wasted. Vikander throws herself into the role with obvious zest, endowing what was a one-dimensional character with the illusion of life.
Tomb Raider is that rare species—a Hollywood reboot significantly better than 1.0. Much of the credit belongs to Vikander, fully invested as the daughter of an aristocratic English archeologist (Dominic West) lost during a mysterious mission in the fabled East. We meet her kickboxing in a London gym, her posh accent incongruous in the gritty setting. Her swiftness with hands and feet will prove useful after her adventure begins.
Lara is resisting her enormous inheritance; to become her father’s heir means acknowledging his death, the one leap into the unknown she is loath to make. So instead of becoming the new lady of mossy Croft Manor, she delivers take-out tandoori on her bicycle, pedaling with the carefree physicality of youth along the cobbled alleyways of East London.
But, as father once said, “We Crofts have responsibilities.” Guided by a series of clues hidden inside Oriental puzzle boxes and cryptic notes, the exuberant girl embarks on a quest to find her father. It will also lead to an apocalyptic discovery, the object of her father’s expedition to Asia, a great evil imprisoned for thousands of years yet waiting for the time to turn the earth into a bone yard and the oceans to blood. Her father wanted to insure that it could never escape its prison. There are others who want it unchained.
Vikander shares credit for Tomb Raider’s success with her director, Roar Uthaug, previously known for helming an interesting Norwegian disaster movie, The Wave. Uthaug understands how to translate video game action into thrilling cinema as Lara rides through a sequence of dangerous episodes—storm-tossed seas lead to a jungle island, a perilous escape, a wild ride down the rapids and—literally—a cliffhanger. She traces her father’s steps to a mysterious island and finds it occupied by the minions of a sinister order determined to loose evil on the world. Edgar Allan Poe would have delighted in the elaborate mechanics of the tomb and the dangerous inner chambers Lara discovers.
Vikander is a more believable female action figure than Jolie, wielding bow and arrow like Jennifer Lawrence in Hunger Games or the mythic Amazons evoked in pop culture by Wonder Woman. Tomb Raider will probably launch a new franchise, but let’s hope Vikander will find time for smaller, more intimate projects in between sequels.
