'Tomb Raider' humanizes Lara Croft

Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft, Photo Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

Academy Award winner Alicia Vikander is back on the big screen as the iconic video game character, Lara Croft, who travels to one of the most dangerous remote islands in Japan, 'Yamatai', to find out what happened to her father after disappearing seven years ago.

Action-packed, fast-paced and plot-oriented, Tomb Raider switches back and forth in showcasing a father-daughter story and exhilarating stunts. It’s like watching a disaster movie as Lara Croft tries to survive big waves, falling rocks, and other forces of nature while outsmarting men in expedition to locate a mythical tomb hidden in the caves of the island.

Alicia Vikander held her own as Lara Croft. She’s cute and sexy even without showing a lot of skin. She thrives from a screenplay that doesn’t require using Lara Croft’s sexuality to fulfill her mission. That didn’t achieve much in general, however, because the film overly sentimentalized her relationship with her father. Humane, but a bit cheesy for my liking.

Tomb Raider humanizes Lara Croft, while making her absolutely invincible. Doesn't work all the time but the exciting action scenes make up for it.

I predict this won’t be the last time we’ll see Vikander as the puzzle-obsessed, lady crusader, Lara Croft, and maybe next time, she’ll be with her famous guns from the video game. We badly missed it here.