Review of “Tomb Raider (2018)”

* * * B

The 2018 remake of Tomb Raider, starring 

Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft, is surprisingly good. There are some excellent supporting actors, including Dominic West as Lara’s father Richard and Daniel “Gul’dan” Wu as sidekick Lu Ren. Walton Goggins is solid as villain Mathias Vogel.

Since Lara Croft is an established character in her own right, the film bucks the trend of gender bending existing franchises, making her an organic female action hero. Clearly Vikander put a lot of work in to her conditioning and performing the action sequences, allowing one to suspend their disbelief of the crazy stunts she performs.

The story is full of interesting puzzles, crazy action sequences, and an overarching plot that requires Lara to save the world from evil. The romantic subplot, while subtle, works well, and the relationship between Lara and her father is excellent. It’s fair to say that Tomb Raider makes a better sequel to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade than Crystal Skull was.

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