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'Tomb Raider' review *spoilers*
7 years ago
General
.... ugh.
Well, the trend of the quality of video game movies continues its unfortunate streak. Which is really a shame since there's some good performances, great stuntwork, and a sense everyone put in a good effort to make something good. Well... everyone except maybe the writers.
I've been looking back at it, wondering if maybe I just was in the mood for something different from what it gave, but its difficult for me to like this movie. Like I said, pretty much all the performers were obviously putting forth their best. Alicia Vikander is pretty much the real life counterpart of Laura. Dominic West is fine as her father. Walton Goggins just looks like a villain, he could visibly read from the script and still deliver a great bad guy, not to mention that ginormous forehead. And Daniel Wu is great as her hired boat captain and, unfortunately, is probably the most interesting character in the movie.
The biggest problem, like I said, is the writing. The first hour was a snooze fest for me despite two chase sequences (which were rather ridiculous), the highlight being a cameo from Nick Frost as a pawn shop owner. One of the biggest mistakes in the writing is that it tells the history of the Mcguffin TWICE in the first 30 minutes!
So the story is suppose to be based off the 2013 reboot of the game series, but decides to make the lost father trope from the first Angelina Jolie Tomb Raider film the main plot focus. And a lot of the changes they make to Laura just... don't make sense.
She's not an archeologist. She refuses the family fortune because it would mean declaring her dad dead, which is noble but means she can't pay for any of the things she does like kickboxing, or a place to live, so she does really strange competitions (do they have a lot of illegal bicycle races in downtown London?). Only to find out that if she DID declare him dead earlier she would have found out about where he disappeared to long ago. THEN she gets to the island he disappeared to only for the villain to find her and IMMEDIATELY TELL HER HE KILLED HER FATHER! If that's not enough, her father turns out to STILL BE ALIVE! Somehow hiding on the island for 7 years without the villain knowing. Not only that, but the villain somehow hasn't bothered to check one of the area most obvious locations on the island for the entrance to this tomb. I seriously feel it couldn't be more obvious if they painted a giant X on the location. Also, this has to be the dumbest set of explorers of a tomb as they trip trap after trap getting to the prize because they take NO PRECAUTIONS! But don't worry, they're somehow smart enough to outsmart the trap afterwards.
Then after all that, the movie has one of the DUMBEST twists I think I've seen in a movie in a long time. It turns out the woman who's been looking after the family fortune and looking after Laura IS THE VILLAIN IN CHARGE OF THE EVIL ORGANIZATION RESPONSIBLE FOR THE EVENTS IN THE FILM! Why is this dumb? Well Laura finds out about it because once she signs the paperwork and inherits everything she goes through a book of all the companies the family owns. Guess what organization is listed in the book? Yep, the same evil one that was looking for the Mcguffin on the island. If that's not enough, Laura goes through more of her dads study and finds a box filled with all the information he could gather about the evil organization. Sure enough, one of the pieces of evidence shows the woman he put in charge of handling the corporation until Laura could take over as well as TAKING CARE OF LAURA as one of the ringleaders of the organization! So in other words, before he disappeared, he gathered all this information about the evil organization, somehow owns their business, has photographic proof the woman is one of the people in charge of the evil organization, yet LEFT HER IN CHARGE OF HIS ESTATE AND HIS DAUGHTER WHEN HE LEFT! I can't facepalm hard enough at this.
To be fair, the inconsistent tone and dumb twist ending make me feel that the movie got put through the wringer by executive meddling. Its based off the 2013 reboot, which is dark, gritty and earns its mature rating, but the first half of the movies plot is taken from the 2001 movie, and there's a lot of editing that feels like there was much more graphic violence than what we see. Not to mention Laura kills a lot of people unlike what she did in the original movie, And the twist really feels like it was tacked on to sequel bait and nothing more.
Also, if you're one of those that hate it when movies spoil things in the trailer, the trailers for this movie literally show the final scene of the movie. No joke. Obviously done for fan service.
There's more I would love to go into, but my recommendation would be to wait and rent this one. When the action sequences aren't silly they're rather boring and most of the movie is predictable. Like I said, a real disappointment considering the effort put in by the cast and crew.
Well, the trend of the quality of video game movies continues its unfortunate streak. Which is really a shame since there's some good performances, great stuntwork, and a sense everyone put in a good effort to make something good. Well... everyone except maybe the writers.
I've been looking back at it, wondering if maybe I just was in the mood for something different from what it gave, but its difficult for me to like this movie. Like I said, pretty much all the performers were obviously putting forth their best. Alicia Vikander is pretty much the real life counterpart of Laura. Dominic West is fine as her father. Walton Goggins just looks like a villain, he could visibly read from the script and still deliver a great bad guy, not to mention that ginormous forehead. And Daniel Wu is great as her hired boat captain and, unfortunately, is probably the most interesting character in the movie.
The biggest problem, like I said, is the writing. The first hour was a snooze fest for me despite two chase sequences (which were rather ridiculous), the highlight being a cameo from Nick Frost as a pawn shop owner. One of the biggest mistakes in the writing is that it tells the history of the Mcguffin TWICE in the first 30 minutes!
So the story is suppose to be based off the 2013 reboot of the game series, but decides to make the lost father trope from the first Angelina Jolie Tomb Raider film the main plot focus. And a lot of the changes they make to Laura just... don't make sense.
She's not an archeologist. She refuses the family fortune because it would mean declaring her dad dead, which is noble but means she can't pay for any of the things she does like kickboxing, or a place to live, so she does really strange competitions (do they have a lot of illegal bicycle races in downtown London?). Only to find out that if she DID declare him dead earlier she would have found out about where he disappeared to long ago. THEN she gets to the island he disappeared to only for the villain to find her and IMMEDIATELY TELL HER HE KILLED HER FATHER! If that's not enough, her father turns out to STILL BE ALIVE! Somehow hiding on the island for 7 years without the villain knowing. Not only that, but the villain somehow hasn't bothered to check one of the area most obvious locations on the island for the entrance to this tomb. I seriously feel it couldn't be more obvious if they painted a giant X on the location. Also, this has to be the dumbest set of explorers of a tomb as they trip trap after trap getting to the prize because they take NO PRECAUTIONS! But don't worry, they're somehow smart enough to outsmart the trap afterwards.
Then after all that, the movie has one of the DUMBEST twists I think I've seen in a movie in a long time. It turns out the woman who's been looking after the family fortune and looking after Laura IS THE VILLAIN IN CHARGE OF THE EVIL ORGANIZATION RESPONSIBLE FOR THE EVENTS IN THE FILM! Why is this dumb? Well Laura finds out about it because once she signs the paperwork and inherits everything she goes through a book of all the companies the family owns. Guess what organization is listed in the book? Yep, the same evil one that was looking for the Mcguffin on the island. If that's not enough, Laura goes through more of her dads study and finds a box filled with all the information he could gather about the evil organization. Sure enough, one of the pieces of evidence shows the woman he put in charge of handling the corporation until Laura could take over as well as TAKING CARE OF LAURA as one of the ringleaders of the organization! So in other words, before he disappeared, he gathered all this information about the evil organization, somehow owns their business, has photographic proof the woman is one of the people in charge of the evil organization, yet LEFT HER IN CHARGE OF HIS ESTATE AND HIS DAUGHTER WHEN HE LEFT! I can't facepalm hard enough at this.
To be fair, the inconsistent tone and dumb twist ending make me feel that the movie got put through the wringer by executive meddling. Its based off the 2013 reboot, which is dark, gritty and earns its mature rating, but the first half of the movies plot is taken from the 2001 movie, and there's a lot of editing that feels like there was much more graphic violence than what we see. Not to mention Laura kills a lot of people unlike what she did in the original movie, And the twist really feels like it was tacked on to sequel bait and nothing more.
Also, if you're one of those that hate it when movies spoil things in the trailer, the trailers for this movie literally show the final scene of the movie. No joke. Obviously done for fan service.
There's more I would love to go into, but my recommendation would be to wait and rent this one. When the action sequences aren't silly they're rather boring and most of the movie is predictable. Like I said, a real disappointment considering the effort put in by the cast and crew.
Yeah, hoping Ready Player One is good. With Spielberg directing I'm at least hoping for an entertaining action movie.
Funny enough, the best 'video game movies' for me haven't been based on a video game. King of Kong, Wreck-It Ralph and the new Jumanji movie are far better movies having to do with video games than the ones based on a certain video game IP
Oh well, just like Blade Runner 2049; I find myself disappointed.
Ready Player One better be as Explosive as it looks.
I actually really liked Blade Runner 2049, but FULLY understand anyone who says they didn't like it. It's an extremely slow movie dealing more with the philosophy of its world rather than the plot of Blade Runners hunting replicants. Its honestly about as close to Philip K. Dick writing as you can get without resurrecting the guy. Still, happy the guy who did the cinematography for it won the oscar for his work (the only win I really know about from the latest oscars, lol)
Yeah, fingers crossed for Ready Player One (they showed a trailer for that as well as Deadpool 2 and a new animated Spider-man movie and they were far more entertaining than the movie)
Yeah, I guess BR 2049 was a doomed film for me before it was released.
Blade Runner (The Final Cut) Is in my top 3 favorite films of all time. 2049 wasn't going to live up for me, it just wasn't. Through no fault of anyone involved, of course. I can do slow, I can do philosophical, that's why I love the original so much.
I absolutely forget all of 2049, I can quote and have memorized visuals and soundtrack from the original.
Deadpool 2's trailer made me squirt. (The Bob Ross parody, I don't know if there are any others.)
The one we got started with a big buildup of Cables story only for the film to stop with a record scratch and Deadpool start yelling at the special effects guys for not finishing the special effects on Cables arm. The special effects guy yells back "It isn't like its a freakin' mustache!" So Deadpool tries telling the story using action figures of him and Cable until the effect are ready. Definitely check it out.