Tomb Raider on-screen adaptations

Le Saboteur

Active member
TheFedora said:
Apparently the date for Tomb Raider is same day as the Flash comes out? Doesn't Warner own both of them? If so, one has to move.

I'm a.) not certain that The Flash is still officially pegged to that day following directorial musical chairs & b.) that there's a lot of crossover audience between the properties. I'd put money on Tomb Raider being the more important picture as well. Ms. Croft will be Warner Bros' counter punch to Raiders of the Blue Pill in their war of attrition with The Walt Disney Company.

The Flash will be the WB-DC's Ant-Man. I'd be almost willing to put money on that outcome. Going forward though, Tomb Raider has more of a future. Time will tell, of course, but I will be interested in seeing the direction the studio plots out this time around. I have great affection for the Angelina Jolie-led films and I quite enjoyed the new direction in the video game series despite the poor writing and story. If they can tighten those last two aspects up, then the film will eventually be a winner.

Enjoy the Twenty Year Celebration!

 

Le Saboteur

Active member
For some reason I thought Attila would enjoy this bit of news.

It's short, but Variety is reporting that <s>Boyd Crowder</S> Walton Goggins is in final negotiations to play the villain in the upcoming flick opposite Alicia Vikander.

Who?

This guy.

w-waltongoggins-gal01.jpg


Look familiar? You might have seen him in The Shield, Justified, or perhaps in Django Unchained or The Hateful Eight.


It's an interesting casting choice to be sure, and I'll be interested in seeing what final form this version takes.

Drop your drawers! ('cause that's the way you open doors!)
 

IndyBuff

Well-known member
I'm not sure why they feel the need to turn some of these games into movies. Playing through Uncharted and Tomb Raider is already like playing through an interactive movie. I wish they'd create something new instead of going down this route again.
 

Le Saboteur

Active member
curmudgeon said:
Filming is underway.

And now we have our first glimpse of the second Academy Award winner to take up the role. If it wasn't obvious beforehand, the studio is obviously following the current incarnation of Lara Croft (from the '13 reboot).

1380310.jpg


Production has nailed the look overall and Vikander looks good in these stills, but the lack of a set has me concerned. I hope they aren't going to layer a few physical props over an obviously CG background. That would be terrible.

Drop by The Escapist for the complete Behind the Scenes look.
 

TheFedora

Active member
They've nailed the outfit from the games, I must say. Absolutely perfect. I would be interested in watching.
 

curmudgeon

Well-known member
I'm not sold on her as the lead just yet, but the spurts of action and puzles gets me nostalgic for the original game.
 

Finn

Moderator
Staff member
Looks like yet another movie that hasn't grasped the fundamental reason as to why most movies based on video games are failures.

In a nutshell, most video games really have garbage plots and settings. And let's be frank, the standards for video game acting are also far lower than what we expect from movies. But if the actual gameplay and setpieces around the gameplay are good, it can still be a good game.

So yeah. When you strip out the gameplay and leave only the non-interactive bits... guess what you have left? A movie with a garbage plot and mediocre acting.
 

IndyBuff

Well-known member
I might rent it when it comes to video but overall I'm not that impressed. Much like Uncharted, the games are the perfect blend of a video game and film, so cutting the gameplay out just makes it feel like another generic action movie.
 

Le Saboteur

Active member
Having just recently returned from Hong Kong it's always fun to see Victoria Harbor in the movies (even if it does look a CGI background), and Daniel Wu definitely deserves more exposure in his homeland. Though, I am reminded about how under utilized Simon Yam was in The Cradle of Life.

While Ms. Vikander is no Angelina Jolie I found the callback at the end of the teaser to be quite amusing. I'm interested in seeing what they do with her in the role.

But as to everything else? The poster is absolutely terrible. If her sauropod neck wasn't a problem, there's no visual identity to the poster. It's so generic that I would walk right by it at the cinema. Hopefully there are better ones in the future that aren't about a series of disembodied heads.

I'll be the dissenting voice on the trailer: I liked it. There's enough there to connect it to the game while being dissimilar enough to warrant further attention. They have time to clean up some of the VFX, but to my eye the potential is there for an entertaining movie (at the very least). The action-adventure genre is one of tactile sensibilities; being able to make the audience feel Lara is imperiled is going to be paramount to the movie's success.

And if you haven't seen it, check out the brief "Becoming Lara Croft" clip Warner Bros. put out with the trailer. It makes me more interested in the movies potential than the trailer did.


Compare that poster with The Cradle of Life's teaser:

Angelina-Jolie-starring-tomb-raider-lara-croft-2568138-476-705.jpg
 

Le Saboteur

Active member
Warner Bros. released a slick new trailer that's a lot better than the first.


I remain conflicted on using the reboot games as a launching pad for a potential new tent pole series. While I like the look of NuLara, the overall stories have been terrible. There's a lot here to whet my appetite as well, but every time 'Trinity' is mentioned I cringe a little. It's a terrible name.
 

Lambonius

New member
Le Saboteur said:
every time 'Trinity' is mentioned I cringe a little. It's a terrible name.

I agree. It was terrible in the games, too. It's not even so much the name as it is the fact that the whole idea of a super-secret world-threatening mercenary army is just so tired and uncreative.
 

Le Saboteur

Active member
Lambonius said:
I agree. It was terrible in the games, too. It's not even so much the name as it is the fact that the whole idea of a super-secret world-threatening mercenary army is just so tired and uncreative.

Absolutely. But it's probably the safest thing one can do these days.

TombRaider.jpg


I like the visuals here. Sure, they've done a 1-to-1 recreation of the game's outfit, but they've spent some time thinking it through -- form follows function. Plus, it's been sufficiently aged.

Warner Bros. has also uploaded a couple of teevee spots in the past few days (for a possible Super Bowl thing?). I don't think they show anything new, though.


 

Le Saboteur

Active member
Z dweller said:
Reviews are rather mixed, I think I'll give this one a miss.

Some fan you are!

Did anybody else know that they created a dark ride for the original flick back at Kings Island in Ohio?


I can see the potential, but I don't know that this was ultimately a good use of the, well, license.
 

Pale Horse

Moderator
Staff member
Z dweller said:
Reviews are rather mixed, I think I'll give this one a miss.

You're the type of viewer that spawned my preferred rating systems of moviesr:

  • Four Stars = Opening Nigh, Crowd Fighting, Full Price, Big Screen, and capitalizing on spoiler free experiences at the water cooler.
  • Three Stars = 3rd Weekend Matinee, 'cause big screen, and I need to get away from the kids for two hours, with some real adults
  • Two Stars = HBO/Netflix/Streaming on my 85" screen and 7.1 Surround Sound Home Theater System (yep, read it).
  • One Star = TNT/TBS Option at the gym, because that's the only place I'll ever watch that Monkey Flying piece of Shiloh Mr. Falcon movie.

Most films for me anymore at 2 star films. The only time that changes is when I want a crowd experience with it to enhance the viewing.

Zdweller, is this a one or two star for you?
 
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