Tomb Raider trailer reboots the movie in the vein of the game reboot
Tomb Raider 2018 is another movie in a long line of hopefuls that attempts to “be the first successful video game adaptation,” which is always a strange slot for a new film to occupy. Assassin’s Creed recently tried and fell flat on its face, even with the help of Michael Fassbender, and there have been so many more before Tomb Raider that they’re just not worth counting (I guarantee someone, somewhere, has counted every single game-turned-movie adaptation). Unfortunately, Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina, The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) doesn’t have the audience pull of Fassbender, yet she’s taken up the Lara Croft mantle, and the Tomb Raider game franchise barely seems to keep knocking the last nail from the coffin with each new iteration. Reboots upon reboots upon “hey look a top-down weird/kind of cool one.” With that in mind, I think anyone would be hard-pressed to root for Tomb Raider the movie 2018 TM with 100% gusto, and the first trailer for the film does little the raise anticipation levels.
Judge for yourself, and check out the first trailer for Tomb Raider after the jump.
Personally, no matter how strong the topcoat of 2013’s video game aesthetic is painted onto this new movie, I couldn’t help feel twinges of Angelina Jolie’s 2001 Tomb Raider tone. Does that date me? Does the modern theater-goer still remember Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft? Was that really sixteen years ago? To add to my feeling of being out of the loop, in doing quick research for this post I realized a game came out after 2013’s reboot. When did Rise of the Tomb Raider happen? Was that really two years ago? Boy, how Tomb Raider time flies, but I digress. What did you think of the Tomb Raider 2018 movie trailer? Does Alicia Vikander fit the bill for you? Any interest in seeing this movie try to grow legs for a franchise? Questions, so many unnecessary questions.
Regardless of how invested you are in the franchise (film or video game), Tomb Raider 2018 is set to hit-and-run in early spring next year. Here’s a lengthy plot synopsis to fill you in on the story details:
Lara Croft is the fiercely independent daughter of an eccentric adventurer who vanished when she was scarcely a teen. Now a young woman of 21 without any real focus or purpose, Lara navigates the chaotic streets of trendy East London as a bike courier, barely making the rent, and takes college courses, rarely making it to class. Determined to forge her own path, she refuses to take the reins of her father’s global empire just as staunchly as she rejects the idea that he’s truly gone. Advised to face the facts and move forward after seven years without him, even Lara can’t understand what drives her to finally solve the puzzle of his mysterious death.
Going explicitly against his final wishes, she leaves everything she knows behind in search of her dad’s last-known destination: a fabled tomb on a mythical island that might be somewhere off the coast of Japan. But her mission will not be an easy one; just reaching the island will be extremely treacherous. Suddenly, the stakes couldn’t be higher for Lara, who—against the odds and armed with only her sharp mind, blind faith and inherently stubborn spirit—must learn to push herself beyond her limits as she journeys into the unknown. If she survives this perilous adventure, it could be the making of her, earning her the name tomb raider.
Tomb Raider was directed by Norwegian filmmaker Roar Uthaug and stars Alicia Vikander, Walton Goggins, Dominic West, Daniel Wu, Nick Frost, and Hannah John-Kamen. The movie hits theaters on March 16, 2018.
