That being said, it would have been great to see another small tomb or set of puzzles for Lara to work through on her own to better establish her as an intellectual rather than just an athlete. While there’s only one tomb being raided here, and it doesn’t have anything you wouldn’t have already seen in another adventure movie, it’s still the most fun part of Tomb Raider. The island and its secrets prove a better, more formidable antagonist for Lara. Even worse, Mathias’ motives for his evil deeds, while understandable, remain unconvincing. He’s only intimidating because of the gun he often wields, but even when he tries to threaten people it comes off more as silly. While Walton Goggins’ villain is just as one-dimensional as everyone else in this film, when you pair his awkward performance with unconvincing motives you’re left with one bad, whiny character. One of the main perpetrators of Lara’s mistreatment here is the antagonist and leader of Trinity forces on Yamatai, Mathias. Instead, this Tomb Raider is one irritating trope after another. The game saw her transform from a bright-eyed archaeologist into a kick-ass adventurer. The 2013 Tomb Raider game did a lot to change Lara’s image, but this movie is a massive step back from that as it fails to understand or adapt what worked well for Lara’s character in that game. Most of the men Lara meets either flirt with her or want to kill her - or both! And there are maybe three other women in Tomb Raider that have more than one line. Hinging this film on their relationship is weak from the very beginning, and it’s only belittled more when Lara sells the one gift from him she treasured to embark on her adventure. The father she thought was always off on business trips was actually risking his life researching supernatural beings while an evil organization, Trinity, tried to exploit his work. His absence is one of two major defining traits of their relationship the other is that he’s kept a massive part of his life hidden from Lara. The inherent bond between parent and child may not need to be explained, but when every memory we see of Lara and her father together is limited to painful departures, it’s difficult to buy into what makes their relationship special. She then uses his research on the uncharted island of Yamatai and its supernatural queen, Himiko, to look for him. She only finds something to care about after she discovers her father’s secret archeology hideout. The fact that she had no prior interest in archeology or desire for adventure makes her a bland heroine next to the video game character, despite Alicia Vikander’s best attempts to bring life to Lara. The first few scenes go to great lengths to prove her athleticism, but fail to develop Lara’s character beyond mild angst as she drifts through life. Seven years after Richard Croft’s disappearance, the estranged Lara has abandoned her family fortune and instead chosen to work as a courier who struggles to make ends meet.
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