The first reason I wanted to watch Tomb Raider was that the first thing I saw about the film — poster or trailer — wasn’t a perky pair of breasts in a really tight tank. I may be one of the very few people who couldn’t really get behind Angelina Jolie’s uber sexy Lara Croft in the two films that she played the popular video game lead, whether she looked exactly like the character or not. Alicia Vikander’s casual look in Tomb Raider is far more appealing. And while the film is not anything to write home about, this is a Lara Croft that I can definitely get behind.
Based on the 2013 video game of the same name, which was a reboot of the franchise, and goes into the origins of Lara Croft, Tomb Raider will make the video game fans very happy given that it often lifts exact scenarios from the game onto the big screen, and does it really well.
But if you aren’t one of the game fans, the plot may seem a bit unimaginative and predictable. There is, of course, some fantastic tale to chase — here it is the myth of a Japanese ruler called Himiko who was apparently buried in an island somewere in the Devil’s Sea, which is what Lara’s father Richard (Dominic West) was looking for when he disappeared seven years ago — and some really never-quite-explained puzzles to solve, but then that is exactly what you expect from a Lara Croft film.
It is not really a film you watch for its storyline and screenplay. If you are in it to see whether Vikander can really pull off the role of an ass-kicking wonder woman who leaps across chasms, survives falls off cliffs with her hands bound and beats the crap out of bad guys, you won’t be too disappointed.
Vikander is no doubt the best thing about the film and is convincing as the younger version of the Lara Croft we are used to. This Lara Croft is trained in archery since childhood, is undergoing training in mixed martial arts even though she is not really excellent at it and has a little taste for the dangerous but is nowhere near the confident, skilled adventurer we saw in Jolie.
There is a scene in Tomb Raider where Croft traps a man in a choke-hold till he goes limp, and you can see the horror of killing someone for the first time reflected in her face — a far more acceptable reaction to taking a life than Jolie’s signature sexy smirk.
If you haven’t played the video game, most of the action sequences will leave you shaking your head. Like when Lara jumps off the ship and doesn’t hit any rocks, or when she manages to jump and latch on to the crumbling plane carcass poised on top of a waterfall, or when she jumps across a chasm armed just with a pick axe and manages to get it right at first go. I couldn’t help but wonder why she didn’t have bloody hands, or at least a cut from the rough edges of the rust-bucket of a plane (I couldn’t help but wonder if she had taken a tetanus shot before she left on the adventure).
But then I went home and watched the first two Lara Croft films and realised Jolie’s Croft didn’t just not get hurt, she didn’t sweat or get covered in grime even after battling statues and escaping from a collapsing temple. At least Vikander’s Croft bleeds, grunts in pain and struggles to best big bad guys — veering between the inexperienced adventurer and confident young woman. In short, this is a far more human version of Croft and that’s definitely an improvement.
Personally, the film wins because it doesn’t end up sexualising Lara Croft. Despite the cool action sequences that Jolie did like a boss both in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider — Cradle of Life (2003), I couldn’t get over the fact that she was doing rope exercises in satin pyjamas with just two buttons done up, or that she was doing action sequences in tight tanks and really tiny shorts, when to a normal person it would make more sense that she covered her legs to minimise scrapes and bruises; or that every dialogue delivered felt like a come-on. Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with a woman being sexy for the sake of a film when it helps the plot along — like Charlize Theron’s character in Atomic Blonde — but it is unforgivable when it is done for the service of the audience.
Vikander’s Croft also wears a tank top but it is never about what she is wearing and how she is looking and I am just thankful for that. Even when she shows up in more Lara Croft-appropriate clothes — all black, some leather and two guns — it is nothing that looks out of ordinary. Oh, and there’s isn’t a token sexy man — like Daniel Craig in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider or Gerard Butler in Cradle of Life — just to introduce sexually charged banter or sexy times.
Jolie’s Croft was about being sexy first; Vikander’s, at least for now, is about being a female adventurer. If this vein continues into the next Lara Croft film, I wouldn’t mind going and spending two hours in a theatre watching it, predictable story or not.
Chandreyee Chatterjee
Alicia Vikander or Angelina Jolie — who did you like better as Lara Croft? Tell t2@abp.in
