Tomb Raider Blu-ray Review

By: Lynn Barker

In Tomb Raider, 20-something Lara Croft (Alicia Vikander) still misses her adventurer dad Richard (Dominic West) who disappeared seven years ago. Hoping he is still alive, she refuses to take her large inheritance as that would mean she accepts that he is dead. Earning a tiny living as a bike messenger isn’t cutting it. When she gets in trouble, she almost signs for her money when she discovers a puzzle from dad that launches her on a major adventure.

Lara's bike messenger raceCourtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Reckless Lara

Richard Croft loved his young daughter but went off on a mission to find the grave of an ultimate evil Japanese Empress and never returned. Years later, young Lara is reckless and determined. After a crash into a police car while participating in an illegal bike race with fellow messengers, she is arrested and bailed out by Richard’s business partner Ana Miller (Kristin Scott Thomas) who tells her to claim her inheritance or her dad’s estate will be sold off.

Young Lara with dad RichardCourtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Dad’s Secrets  

Lara reluctantly agrees but, before signing, she is given a puzzle box that contains a strange message and finds her dad’s secret office and a video message from him describing his research into Himiko, the mythical Japanese Empress supposed to command the power over life and death. Richard warns Lara to destroy all of his research because an evil force called Trinity wants to use the power as a weapon. Hoping to find dad, Lara decides to investigate further.

Lara finds her dad's researchCourtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Trip to a Mysterious Island

As per dad’s notes, Lara travels to Hong Kong where she bribes ship captain Lu Ren (Daniel Wu) to sail to an island believed to have once been Himiko’s domain. The ship capsizes in a violent storm and Lara is washed ashore unconscious. She is revived by Mathias Vogel (Walton Goggins), the leader of an expedition funded by Trinity to locate Himiko's tomb.  Vogel takes Lara prisoner, says that he killed her father and intends to use Richard's research Lara brought with her to finally locate the tomb. Lara escapes with the help of Lu Ren, who survived the storm. After some close scrapes in the jungle, she is injured and passes out. 

Vogel wants Richard's researchCourtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Man of Mystery

Lara follows a mysterious, bearded figure climbing up a cliff and learns that he is her father, who has been hiding on the island for all these years trying to secretly guide Vogel in the wrong direction. He treats Lara’s injuries and she insists on getting his research back from Vogel and takes off for the camp. Richard follows her to the tomb door and, when Vogel learns he’s alive, he will kill him unless she opens the tomb door. Lara can’t let him die …again so, using the research, she opens it despite Richard’s protests.

Lara opens the tombCourtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Tomb Raider

With Lara leading, Vogel and men escape various booby traps and Lara solves a puzzle or two to get to Himiko’s sarcophagus. Despite Richard’s warnings, Vogel and men open it and the body inside seems to succumb to a weird disease. After touching the body to remove it, the men are infected by a horrible fast-growing virus.  So this was her “power”, a world-killing virus? Vogel cuts off the corpse’s finger and seals it in a bag. He’ll take the deadly virus with him.

Vogel opens the sarcophagus of the EmpressCourtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Final Questions

Will Vogel make it to the mainland with the virus? Will Lara and her dad escape the tomb? Can Lu Ren rescue them? Will Lara ever inherit her fortune and who, back home, is actually a Trinity agent?

Special Extra Features

• Lara Croft: Evolution is mega-cool for gaming fans, especially those who remember when the game first came out and its amazing evolution. Actors, including Alicia, talk about playing it and we see how the graphics changed drastically over the years. Each edition of the game is covered plus the Reboot upon which this film is based.
• Fascinating!
• Tomb Raider: Uncovered deals with recreating the Lara character. Dir, Producers and actors talk about the origin story. Alicia talks about building in Lara’s emotions. Action sequences, locations, sets and production design are briefly covered.
• Croft Training shows us just how hard Alicia worked to get her body ready for the amazing stunts in the film. She worked with a personal trainer for months and ate high energy meals. Interesting.
• Breaking Down the Rapids focuses on just how Alicia actually filmed the extended scene in which Lara falls into rapids and ends up hanging from a World War II crashed plane etc. This shows us the mix of on set stunts and CGI. Very cool.

Lara hangs over the rapidsCourtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Wrapping Up

This Blu-ray/DVD/Digital set looks and sounds extra crisp.  We have no Blooper Reel (I love those) and there is no Audio Commentary which might have been interesting. However, the four extras are all entertaining and worth a once-watch.

Lara on the wing of the WW II planeCourtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

The new Tomb Raider movie is a nice origin story reboot overall with Alicia Vikander turning in a good performance as a tough young woman marred by her past and ready for adventure but with a lot to learn. The film could use a bit more comic relief and Vikander’s Lara is inexperienced but grows stronger as she goes and that lets us relate to her. Vikander’s Oscar-winning acting chops show.

Lara takes aimCourtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

While several stunt escape pieces are gritty, clever, fresh and well-executed by Vikander, a few are also derived from old Indiana Jones movies; we’ve seen some of the booby traps in the tomb far too often.

Lu Ren on the islandCourtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

There may not be another “Lara” film starring Vikander but we have the set-up here. For more of an origin story on the character, this version is well worth collecting. We can go four stars.

Tomb Raider Blu-ray Rating: 

Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Tomb Raider is in stores June 12^th.

Have Your Say

Are you a gamer who was ever into the Tomb Raider titles? Do you like Alicia Vikander’s version of the character? Do you want to add this home version to your collection? Let everyone know with a comment!