Lara unwillingly accepts and gains access to a hidden chamber in her father’s tomb, where she finds a pre-recorded video report from Richard detailing his research into Himiko, the false Queen of Yamatai. The latter was said to hold power over life and death. Richard warns Lara to destroy his investigation, but she neglects his warnings and investigates further. The house that Lara inherited itself gave me a lot of chills, and that secret chamber was so cool. Even after looking at her father, Lara ignores her father’s advice and keeps on investigating the research was very foolish of her. But the set was amazing, and it gave me Harry Potter vibes.
Movie Says
Not yet having earned her inheritance Lara is forced to pawn the jade pendant her dad gave her. With the money, Lara visits Hong Kong, where she hires Lu Ren, commander of the ship Endurance, to travel into the Devil’s Sea and the island of Yamatai. The ship overturns in a violent storm, and Lara has flooded ashore, where she is beaten unconscious. She wakes up only to encounter Mathias Vogel, the expedition’s leader, to find Himiko’s tomb. The company has been funded by a shadowy corporation called Trinity, which provides and weaponizes Himiko’s power. Vogel notes Lara prisoner, declaring that he killed her father and exposing that he intends to use Richard’s research to maintain his expedition. He adds Lara and Lu Ren to his slave cell. The two of them try to leave, but only Lara succeeds. After surviving rapids and nearly avoiding falling over a waterfall with a wartime airplane wreck, Lara is made to kill a Trinity guard after nightfall. She tracks a mysterious figure through the forest and discovers that the figure is her father, who visited the island to prevent Trinity from discovering Himiko’s tomb. After Lara assures him that she is real and not a fantasy of his imagination, Richard treats her wounds. Despite his protests, Lara sets off the next morning to take Vogel’s satellite phone. Lara makes a connection with Lu Ren, and he, along with the other slaves, stage a diversion that allows Lara to infiltrate the Trinity camp and take the phone.
Women Empowerment
The sequence is a real reflection of women’s empowerment, as Lara escapes from a highly secured and monitored expedition. Fooling a lot of men around him. She followed her instincts and went after the mysterious figure, which might end her up in some trouble. Even though she was safe now, she went back again to steal the Sattelite phone. Her character is shown not only brave but also smart and clear-headed; As at times of crisis, a lot of people are not able to think clearly and tend to break down. But her character proved the patrinellianl society wrong. Lu Ren commandeers an onslaught rifle in the ensuing chaos, grants cover for the escapees, and guns down various Trinity soldiers. At the same time, Richard gets his way to Himiko’s tomb but is captured by Vogel, who convinces Lara to open the tomb, something she has been waiting for since she was a child. At that point, the tomb’s doorway self-destructs and falls away, enabling the party to enter the vault, which has not been seen for over two thousand years.
Plot Twist
The party operates a series of booby traps and finds Himiko’s sarcophagus. When a Trinity soldier tries to remove her corpse, he is infected by a highly infectious pathogen that overcomes those infected to an aggressive zombie-like state. Lara understands that Himiko was an asymptomatic bearer of the virus, who chose to entomb herself not to contaminate others. Vogel decides that he cannot remove Himiko’s body and instead settles for detaching a finger, which he seals in a container. In confusion, Lara and Richard defeat the remaining soldiers, although Vogel disappears and Richard becomes infected. Knowing there is no cure, Richard suggests destroying Himiko’s tomb to prevent the disease from developing across the world. Lara attempts Vogel as Richard sets off a bomb, shooting himself and sealing the tomb. Lara defies and kills Vogel by contaminating him with the finger. She leaves the tomb as it collapses, regrouping with Lu Ren and the slaves; they commandeer a Trinity helicopter to leave Yamatai.
You Can Do Better
Lara returns to London, where she formally receives her inheritance and inadvertently learns that Trinity’s front company, Patna, is a Croft Holding subsidiary. She further examines and suspects Ana as an agent of the Trinity; Molds her into accepting her inheritance to control Croft Holdings’ trading operations when Richard stops interacting with the Trinity. Having observed Trinity’s ruthlessness firsthand, she plans for her next adventure. Later, Lara returns to Alan’s pawnshop to buy back her pendant and purchases two identical pistols. The movie has an amazing but not so amazing plot twist. Tomb Raider has fantastic sets, but they have a complicated storyline. Initially, the movie was about finding her father, but then it was about a zombie apocalypse; The story could have been molded more efficiently. However, the ending itself promised us a sequel. There is no doubt that the movie empowers women. But, viewers expected more.
Rating
On Rotton Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 51% based on 317 reviews and an average rating of 5.50/10. The website’s critical consensus reads, “Tomb Raider reboots the franchise with a more grounded approach and a star who’s more than up to the task—neither of which are well served by an uninspired origin story.” At the time of its release, it was the best-reviewed movie based on a video game on the site. On Metacritic, the movie has a weighted average score of 48 out of 100, based on 52 critics, indicating “mixed or average reviews.” Audiences survey by CinemaScore gave the movie an average grade of “B” on an A+ to F scale, the same score obtained by the 2001 film. PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it a 70% positive score.
Michael Philips of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 2 out of 4 stars and said, “The Lara Croft reboot Tomb Raider isn’t half bad for an hour. Then there’s another hour. That hour is quite bad. It’s no fun watching your action heroine get shoved, punched, and kicked to the sidelines of her movie while the menfolk take over and take turns overacting before expiring. ” Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter gave the movie a mixed review. Criticizing the story but praising Vikander and writing, “When all the one-dimensional continuing characters and familiar action moves fall by the wayside, the one thing left position is Vikander.
Verdict
The movie strains credulity even for a vid-game fantasy by letting the leading lady recover quickly from bad injuries. However, other than that, Vikander commands attention and is the element here that makes Tomb Raider watchable. I thought Alicia Vikander was very good and perfect casting for films based on modern games. Just as Angelina Jolie was for the films based on the early games. However, the script of the 2018 reboot was not great. She did the best she could with what she was given, and most of the cast turned in good performances. However, the plot is a chore to struggle through; Lara doesn’t come away from her quest, having learned anything new about herself or the world. The ending seems far too arrogant about assuming it would have a sequel; And that we would want to see political/business espionage by the look of it. So, to sum up, we can say the movie did okay, but we can expect the sequel to do better.
