The new Tomb Raider movie sucks and here's why [spoilers]

[JcGross]

There are going to be spoilers here, but I don't think it will detract from the viewing experience. I'm writing this mainly as an outlet for my frustration and my thoughts.

 

Square Enix are idiots. That much has been confirmed time and time again. They just don't know what makes something successful. When they made Rise of the Tomb Raider they messed up by amping up the wrong things in the game (there was WAY too much emphasis on collecting crap to craft). When Deus Ex Mankind Divided came out they didn't know what made Human Revolution good (the intricate story and well written characters), instead they focused on doing more of the same, not fixing old mistakes (like prerendered takedowns). And there are a lot more mistakes SE made, the latest of which is the 2018 Tomb Raider movie. Again, it seems like they looked at the game and said "Oh, people liked this, so let's make something like this" and they threw away the good parts and kept the crap.

 

The reboot Tomb Raider game was so much better. And I don't mean that they shouldn't change and rewrite things to fit the movie better, but they totally failed in every respect. Let's take it from the top. In the movie Lara Croft is the polar opposite of the character in the game. She is a fighter (established in the FIRST scene), she didn't go to collage, she doesn't care about archaeology, her only motivation is to find out what happened to her father. Now compare that to the game where she is an archaeologist out to make a name for herself. She is not much of a fighter, she never had to really fend for herself. Furthermore the game starts in medias res and we slowly get some scenes that happened on the boat ride. Instead the movie DRAGS on trying to set up this pathetic plot line about Lara's father. And all of this just so shoehorn trinity into it so they are the big bad. And the first half an hour at least is really just a wast of time. I mean did we really need to see how she finds a boat to go to the island??? Wasn't it just so much easier in the games? Ya know, just start with them already on their way, maybe a monologue with a voyage montage or something, establish the characters and bam, you're on the island. In 10-15 minutes they could've done it way better.

 

Now, the game was good because of the supporting characters. Johna, Roth, Reyes, Whitman. These were all important to the story. They could've done away with Whitman and Reyes to keep the cast smaller but leaving out Johna and Roth? The two most influential people in this story? And of course Sam.

 

Now the story is crap as well. The game centered around this idea that Lara doesn't believe in the supernatural, but then slowly has to face the fact that it does exist. In the movie Lara doesn't believe in the supernatural, and by the end her views are completely vindicated, leading to no character progression, yet again. Turns out Himiko was just a carrier of a nasty virus that turns you into a zombie. But then how do you explain the storms?!?! The whole thing in the game was that Himiko is a very real goddess who wants to be reborn in Sam's body. She is causing all the storms that leave people stranded on Jamatai. And all of this is kind of implied in the beginning exposition of the movie, but then is all but forgotten by the end, kind of saying "oh, that's not it at all". Mathias was turned from a charismatic and intriguing villain into a one dimensional goon. If they really wanted him to be a Trinity thug they could've just as easily did that with him going mad on the island, bringing the whole thing closer to the game.

 

And the most amazingly stupid thing they did... They took one of the most important lines from the game and they made a complete mockery of it, twisting it, using it in the complete opposite sense. "I'm not that kind of Croft" meant that she doesn't believe in herself but she slowly overcame her fears and gained confidence. This was the motto of her growth. But in the movie it kinda just means "I think you're stupid dad and I'm better".

 

I'm not saying all of this because I think they should've recreated the game in movie form. I'm saying this because what they did do is not in any way better than the game. Oh, and the CGI was dodgy at best.

[Volbet]

I guess my main issue is that the movie is that basically falls between two chairs. 

It's trying to be both an action movie and an intersting character study. While this is certainly doable it's a hard balance to achieve. 

And this movie missed the target by miles.

Even with its many flaws, the Angelina Jolie Tomb Raider at least understood that it was a mindless action movie. 

 

The greatest shame is that it didn't have to be like that. I actually thought the rewrite had some potential and I though Alicia Vikander was a great choice to play Lara Croft.

[JcGross]

I just don't understand who on the writing staff thought that this was acceptable. Lara basically doesn't have a character arc. She goes from missing her father, not believing in the supernatural and being a fit, ready-for-a-fight girl to... the same thing basically at the end of the movie. Nothing changes. Just her father dies, but that doesn't change anything about her character. Maybe that she starts believing her father's conspiracy, but that's pretty shallow in my opinion.

 

What pains me the most is that they really REALLY messed up the island setting. The game was so interesting with the religious fanatics with their cobbled together shacks and world war 2 weapons, and their crazy leader, and this underlying supernatural power. The movie has none of that. Well, whatever, let's hope if they make a sequel they do a better job. It's not terrible though, it just stings so bad that they squandered the potential of this movie away.

 

Oh, and that ending with the duel pistols is just cringe as hell... I like the iconic design of the dual pistols but the way it was acted is just bleed out of my eyes levels of cringe. (And even Rise of didn't have the dual pistols, which too was a sad day. Get on that square! I hope to see them in the next game!)

[JoostinOnline]

I think the purpose of her father being alive was to surprise fans of the series. Those of us who have played the games expected him to be dead. My only real issue was explaining magic with science. In a sense it eliminated the possibility of magical artifacts for future movies. 

 

The past two Tomb Raider games haven't had very good stories. The "reveals" and "twists" were painfully obvious. They don't understand that foreshadowing needs to be subtle. With that in mind, I went in with little expectations and just chose to enjoy the movie for what it was. It WASN'T SSUPPOSED to be like the games. It was basically another reboot. Treat it like it was meant to be seen, and you'll enjoy it. I certainly didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either. 

[JcGross]

I respectfully disagree. I think the first TR in particular had a pretty good story. It wasn't mindblowing or anything, but I felt the characters were strong and Lara had a nice arc. Yeah, the twists are a bit on the nose, but I mainly focus on the characters (I guess you could describe me as more of a drama, than an adventure person). I guess it's down to personal preference, but I'd argue that even objectively looking at it, the first game has some good things going for it in terms of story.

I believe you are wrong about it not being supposed to be like the game. Of course there were rewrites, and that's bound to happen. I didn't expect them to do the exact same thing, but I've already talked about that. The problem is that they removed the good things from the story and replaced them with weak elements.

 

I agree though that the omission of magic was very disappointing and disconcerning. As for her father being alive... I liked Roth as a father figure way more. He actually did things and was an influence on Lara. Whereas her father kind of didn't do anything besides dying. And I love McNulty but this performance was weaksauce.

[Quadriplegic]

Man, I hope Ozzy Man reviews this movie...

[Xander Cousins]

Thing is you have to remember a lot of people are going into this Tomb raider movie expecting it to be similar to the Past laura croft movies where she was just a Girl ready for a fight and all. 

 

It they kept it similar to the Games story line only people that would be interested in it and enjoy it would most likely be the ones who played the games as they would like to see if any more information has been made available that wasn't in the game. 

 

So I can understand why the movie is a clone copy or a poorly made duplicate as it wasn't what they where going for. you most likely saw the Assassin Creed movie. In all fairness it was...Ok I guess but it wasn't anywhere near what we as players wanted it to be. we wanted it to be about Ezio or the main character (Fml forgot his name) but it wasn't. 

 

 

[Princess Luna]

8 minutes ago, Alex Colson said:

ou most likely saw the Assassin Creed movie. In all fairness it was...Ok I guess but it wasn't anywhere near what we as players wanted it to be. we wanted it to be about Ezio or the main character (Fml forgot his name) but it wasn't. 

The AC movie almost worked out, the issue with it is that like always they tried to explain the whole deal for those who do not know the franchise first to only then warm up the action, if the movie was made more specifically to those who are fans already and didn't waste 1 hour of the movie just explaining how the universe works we'd have had a much better experience for sure.

[Xander Cousins]

Just now, Princess Cadence said:

The AC movie almost worked out, the issue with it is that like always they tried to explain the whole deal for those who do not know the franchise first to only then warm up the action, if the movie was made more specifically to those who are fans already and didn't waste 1 hour of the movie just explaining how the universe works we'd have had a much better experience for sure.

I Didn't mind the experience due to the wee easter eggs in the background. The classic Animus and referring to what needs to be sacrificed to become a Assassin those we things made the movie ok for me but again it was like ehhh 

[JoostinOnline]

41 minutes ago, JcGross said:

I believe you are wrong about it not being supposed to be like the game.

If it was supposed to be like the game, it would have been like the game. And it wasn't.  They took a few elements from the comics and reboot, but the story was completely different.  In fact, a lot of the inspiration came from Rise of the Tomb Raider.  They share some names and places, but that's where the similarities end. 

 

You're two steps from complaining that the Harry Potter movies weren't enough like the Lord of the Rings books.