See how it all began
For 22 years, ever since the first Tomb Raider game was released, we’ve know Lara Croft as an intrepid adventurer who can escape great danger, plunder ancient treasures and do a really impressive back-flip-while-shooting-guns maneuver. She was not always this way. When we first meet Lara Croft in Tomb Raider, her first movie in 15 years, she is actually not a tomb raider. She’s a young woman whose father disappeared while trying to solve an ancient mystery and left her alone. She’s now trying to make her way in the world, refusing to accept her father’s vast fortune because inheriting it would mean admitting he is dead. The film follows the perilous adventure that turned Lara into the hero we know.
An award-winning adventurer
To play a very modern version of Lara, Tomb Raider needed a very modern actress. The production found the perfect Ms. Croft in Oscar-winner Alicia Vikander plays Lara Croft. She has the action chops, thanks to months of stunt training and learning to become very handy in a kick-boxing ring, but Vikander also shows the toughness of Lara’s journey. We see the horror of killing for the first time, the determination needed to continue a quest when everyone’s telling you to stop, and the difficulty in keeping it together when people keep trying to kill you every few minutes. Lara’s a fighter, of course, but she’s also so much more.
Kick-ass action
You can’t have a Tomb Raider movie without a hell of a lot of action and this one is crammed to bursting with adrenaline-pumping set-pieces. Lara is shot at, shipwrecked, pursued in multiple high-speed chases, nearly drowned in a raging river, trapped in a collapsing cave and almost dropped into a bottomless pit. The woman does not have it easy. Because she’s still finding her feet as a fighter, Lara is not yet skilled with her trademark twin hand-guns, but she’s gold-medal-level with a bow and arrow.
Globetrotting glamour
One of the signatures of the Tomb Raider games is the exotic locations. The new Tomb Raider film certainly doesn’t disappoint on that front. Lara’s mission takes her to the bustling, danger-filled streets of Hong Kong and a hidden tropical island full of unimaginable peril, but the film also celebrates the excitement of Lara’s home. She’s a London girl and Tomb Raider explores the edgiest, most dynamic parts of the capital, particularly with a breakneck bike chase through the streets of Shoreditch. London looks hot in this movie.
A sensational soundtrack
Every action adventure needs a pulsating soundtrack. To write the film’s thundering score, the filmmakers enlisted electronic composer Junkie XL, who provided the music for the heart-thumping Mad Max: Fury Road. His sound takes Lara’s adventure to another level. And it’s fitting for a film that’s all about reinventing a beloved heroine to introduce emerging artists on its soundtrack. The songs in the Tomb Raider are largely from artists on the brink, like K. Flay. It’s a movie that sounds as superb as it looks.
Tomb Raider is in cinemas now