The ‘Tomb Raider’ Trailer Is Here! Can Alicia Vikander Pull an Angelina Jolie?
Also published on Medium.
Really, where does the time go? It’s already been 16 years since Lara Croft: Tomb Raider kicked butt at the box office. Star Angelina Jolie was still in her wild child, I wear-a-vial-of-Billy Bob’s-blood, pre-humanitarian mode. Three onscreen Spider-Mans have scaled walls in red tights in the interim. So yeah, a reboot is way overdue.
Vikander means business (Warner Bros.)
Now we finally get an extended look at the new Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Go ahead, check it out again. That’s Alicia Vikander, an Oscar winner for The Danish Girl, as the intense, tank top-favoring British archeologist. The film is based on the 2013 video game, which featured an update on the heroine’s origins. (The original video game was released back by Playstation in 1996.) Lara returns home to discover that her eccentric adventurer dad is dead. (Jolie’s dad, Jon Voight, played him in the original.) She also learns that he left behind a video message: He found a tomb called the Mother of Death, located on a mythical island somewhere off the coast of Japan. She must get to it before a shady organization called Trinity opens it. The fierce Lara gets shipwrecked and kidnapped and escapes a bunch of goons along the way. Obvi the entire world is at stake.
Remember when Jolie loved to play with weapons?
Jolie was just 25 when she filmed Tomb Raider in 2000. Vikander is 28. Still, it appears that this incarnation is Lara Croft is a bit younger, more wide-eyed and not quite as prepared for the adventure that awaits her. I predict a slew of interviews in which Vikander, a former ballerina, describes in detail her intense exercise regimen to get in shape for the demanding role. (Fingers crossed she also has an intriguing take on the Tulip Fever debacle.) Jolie’s boots won’t be easy to fill. But anyone who saw Vikander use her wits to win in Ex_Machina knows that this woman can not and should not be underestimated.
(Lara Croft: Tomb Raider opens in theaters March 16, 2018)
Also published on Medium.