While Marvel has mastered the art of bringing comic-book superheroes to life with fully realized films, successfully translating video games to the big screen has remained a puzzle for the ages. In Tomb Raider, Norwegian director Roar Uthaug attempts to buck this trend by injecting Lara Croft’s latest outing with the same grit and realism that made the video game’s 2013 reboot such a breath of fresh air. The results are… mixed.
An origin story through and through, Tomb Raider introduces us to a young and reckless Lara (Alicia Vikander), who’s refused a vast inheritance following the disappearance of her father (Dominic West). But with her day-to-day struggles as a London bike courier mounting, her father’s old business partner (Kristin Scott Thomas) convinces Lara to protect the Croft estate from being sold off.