Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Alicia Vikander, Dominic West, Walton Goggins, Daniel Wu, Kristen Scott Thomas, Derek Jacobi, Billy Postlethwaite, Josef Altin, Jaime Winstone, Samuel Mak, Sky Yang, Civic Chung, Maisy De Freitas, Emily Carey, Nick Frost.

When the action on screen is more enjoyable than the overall story; that is the time in which to surrender the plot and just get out of the film what you can. It happens more often than you might think but rarely in such a brazen way in which the reboot of Tomb Raider has foisted upon the world and if it wasn’t for the admittedly spectacular stunts pulled off in part by Alicia Vikander, the whole film could be seen as a dramatic failure, only kept alive by the fandom of the indomitable presence that Lara Croft has had on the games industry across three decades.

You probably would be expecting too much to have much of a plot attached to a film in which feels as if it could have been carried off in essence by any of the screen heroes of the last thirty years, from Indiana Jones to Lara Croft, in the end it all becomes a trope in which the formula works but is not necessarily taxing on the mind.

In parts the film is saved by the grit of its leading protagonist, one perhaps more fulfilled by the role than was seen in the original films in the early part of the century, a more rounded persona, arguably a more thoughtful presentation of a much loved character but still one hindered by the story-line and by the enormity of the history behind the computer generated heroine.

All action films can fall into the same trap; it is when the audience realises that the situation encountered, with tinkering, can be placed into any other film, that is when it becomes a fool hardy exploration of re-imagining what has gone before. Tomb Raider is a nice moment of escapism with the right amount of tension and willing of the suspension of disbelief, but in truth it doesn’t offer the cinema lover anything new, anything tangible that would ask of them to invest heavily into the film or the inevitable sequel.

Perhaps like any ancient artefact that resurfaces after awhile, its allure is tarnished, given unrealistic value and one that soon drops when you realise that you can something just like it from any bazaar.

Ian D. Hall