Warning, this review contains spoilers for the film.
The new “Tomb Raider” was released on March 16 and was highly anticipated by many fans of the video games.
Personally, I was extremely excited to see this movie after watching the previews.
Going into this movie I was expecting intense action scenes with a great storyline.
The first part of the movie was very drawn out.
I did like how they showed Lara Croft solving a puzzle to unlock the story of her dad, and hinted that he was missing.
They also did the humor in the movie very well; it wasn’t overdone or rife with the boring tropes that action movies can sometimes get caught up in.
One big scene was when Croft and boat captain Lu Ren approached the island of Yamatai.
In the trailer, this scene looked particularly good in terms of effects and general action, but in the movie, it fell flat.
In addition, with such dark colors, the scene was very hard to follow.
The following action scenes that took place on the island were very lackluster and contained too much of Croft crashing into trees, only receiving small scratches and one minor wound.
This was one of the most disappointing parts of the movie for me because the games do such a good job of engaging fights and action with the characters.
Another plot point that I was highly displeased with was Croft’s father.
In the beginning of the movie, the viewer is led to believe Croft’s father is dead, until he’s revealed to have been living on the island the entire time.
This felt very drawn out and unnecessary, especially since in the games Croft’s father is dead and she is out for revenge.
The last complaint I have with the movie is the premise of magic vs. science that the movie used.
The viewer spends 75 percent of the movie believing that the long-dead Queen Himiko has the power to control life and death through magic.
Then at the very end of the movie, it’s revealed that it’s not magic at all, but a disease that Himiko was a carrier of and immune to.
This was really irritating as it left a lot of holes within the story that had been building during the entire movie, just for the plot to explain it without calling it magic.
I do have to say that I extremely enjoyed the cast of the movie, and that Alicia Vikander did an excellent job of playing Croft and looked exactly like her.
Overall, the movie was okay, but definitely did not meet expectations for action and storyline that fans would expect of a “Tomb Raider” movie.

3/5 stars