It is a well know to almost every gamers in the world - who experienced the gaming world since the year of PlayStationX - the existence of Lady Lara Croft. The fearless lady who climb over the ruins, dodges rolling stones, gun blasting every henchmen, feral animals and also a demon and a mystical being. The lady who once branded as the sex symbol for gaming industry at its time. The lady, who locked down her own butler into the enormous freezer.
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| We all know that backflip leads to satisfaction back then. |
This year, the latest Tomb Raider movie released for the movie-goers. Is it bad or is it good? Is it worth to see or not?
On this post, I'll try to elaborate all my findings and my opinions regarding the Roar Uthaug's Tomb Raider that I've seen literally yesterday. And I must inform you, at the near of the end, SPOILERS ALERT!!!!!!
And therefore, this is #MovieGlasses.
Short History for Tomb Raider's Movie
Tomb Raider was already become a feast of the eyes since, several years ago. With Angelina Jolie casted as Lara Croft, the first Tomb Raider released at 2001 (remember those U2 - Elevation song?). I remembered the black, sexy outfit and her pony-tailed hair. I remembered the after-shower scene. I remembered the scene when they rode horses across the meadow. It was a movie when I grew up.
Then came out the 2003 Tomb Raider, still with Angelina Jolie, but with more nipple-poppin outfit. Not much to remember though, only the outfit that, well, slick.
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| Both Tomb Raider popping the cinemas at early 2000's |
Even they casted the well known actress as their main character, the audience were not quite pleased. As listed on the IMDb and RottenTomatoes, both movies are considered dissatisfying. On IMDb, Tomb Raider : Lara Croft rated 5.8/10 and The Cradle of Life got 5.5/10. While on Rotten Tomatoes, they got 20% and 25% respectively. The reason? Well, in my point of view, it might came from how they portrayed Lara Croft and how they associate it with Angelina Jolie, in the matter of a sex symbol of gaming world at that moment. I guess, the movie makers got confused on how to translating the pointy, polygon breast into the real world.
The 2018's Franchise
When we started talking about the newest franchise that just came out recently, of course we need to see the fundamental idea this movie based on.
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| Tomb Raider's Reboot on the next gen. |
Tomb Raider (2013) was released on the next-gen gaming console (PlayStation 3 & Xbox 360) and also released the Definitive Edition for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It was developed by Crystal Dynamics (also who made Tomb Raider: Underworld for the previous console generation) and published by Square Enix. It steal the hype and anticipation at that year. And after the release date, the game was well received and got a quite lot of prising from game critiques.
This Tomb Raider was different from its predecessor. It was a reboot, which mean the story - Lara and her adventures - were reset into square one, moving into another branch of alternate story line. So we won't see her as a hard-boiled, gun blazing, cold-faced, pointy-polygon breast Lara. That Lara was in another timeline. This Lara is another person.
At the peak of her youth, Lara decided to started her first expedition / adventure, alone. Searching an island with a lost kingdom called Yamatai. Since the time she board into the boat, her fate was set. Enemies will lurk between the darkness, nature will provide what she needs, and her only way to survive is fight.
At this game, we saw Lara Croft as a young lady who absolutely have no experience on adventuring. And by the progression of the game, we will eventually see her as a lady with skills and a soul of an adventurer. In the nutshell, it was from a zero-ine to hero-ine.
The Movie and The Game
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| The Lara Croft for the Millennials. |
Then, we arrived at the movie itself.
Tomb Raider (2018) was directed by Roar Uthaug. The movie was based on the Tomb Raider (2013) and borrowed some elements from the Crystal Dynamic's Tomb Raider, and it was also a reboot on Tomb Raider franchise. Lara Croft was played by Alicia Vikander, a young lady in the search of his long lost dad. Fate was lead her towards the hidden island named Yamatai, along with the urge to find her father and also unravel the mystery that made her father gone.
So what makes it different with the game it based on? I believe in order to reduced the plot spoiler-ing by the gamer to the world, there are some fundamental differences between those two.
!!!! WARNING. FOLLOWING PARAGRAPHS CONTAINED SPOILERS. MAY PROCEED BY YOUR OWN CAUSE !!!!
Several things that previously mentioned as fundamentals are the characters, the backstory, overall main story and the last boss.
- The Background Story - the back story for the game was purely focused on Lara Croft in her first expedition. As a archeological graduate, it is a natural thing for a person to do some expedition, find new discovery or meet some ancient hidden tribes. While on the movie, Lara Croft was a daughter of a wealthy man who suddenly disappeared on his own expedition several years ago. Living on her life as a normal Millennials (and working as a bike-courier cyclist), the young Lara still kept wondering about her father, and she believed that her father was still alive. Long story short, due to some circumstances, she unraveled her father secrets as a archeologist who interested on mythical and ancient stuff. And therefore, she learned about the Yamatai.
- Overall Main Story - while the game and the movie shared the same idea which is the evolution of Lara Croft being into an adult woman, but the path or the progress are very different. Even both of Lara were sailed by the boat named Endurance, and both of them stranded on Yamatai's shore, and both of them were met by so-called local tribe, up until this event, the story of two Lara will different
- The Game Lara will learn to escape from the tribe, found some weapons, learn thing or two, got into the castle and beat the Last Boss before she slip away with a cargo ship.
- The Movie Lara got caught by the Last Boss, escape the Last Boss' camp, met her father, proceeding with sentimental moment, came back to stop the Last Boss' plan, failed, accompanied Last Boss into dungeon alongside with father who come to the rescue, puzzling time, some small fight with henchman, experiencing moment of truth, father-and-daughter moment, beat up the Last Boss and finally escape the dungeon and the island by hi-jacking the helicopter that the Last Boss called earlier.
- The Characters - when we talking about the characters, of course it will be different. It is a mix-match thingy on the storyline. Like on the movie, there was Lara's Father, then the guy who owned Endurance who will become her aid on escaping the camp, then the Last Boss who previously worked with Lara's Father on Yamatai, and not to forget the lady who acted as Lara's Guardian who in the end unrevealed as the person who started it all. While the game, was entirely different: the tribe that lived in Yamatai was a bunch of criminals, mercenaries and shipwreck survivors who wanted to search the treasure of the island, then there are several of people who accompanied Lara on her first expedition who along the progress will met one by one, and of course, the guardians of the island of Yamatai alongside with the Last Boss itself, Lady Himiko.
- The Last Boss - this item is the most distinguishable differences that separate between games and movie. The Last Boss on the movie was the man who once worked with Lara's Father at Yamatai and now the leader of the excavation on Himiko's tomb, Mathias Vogel. Even he had the same name as one of main antagonist on the game version, he has no super powers or any distinguishable skills. He just a mean man. On the contrary, the Last Boss of the game was the Lady Himiko itself. Lady Himiko in the shape of a trapped soul, looking for a body to take on. Guarded by her loyal bodyguards (which takes a form of animated corpses with muscles, armours and weapons), Lara must stop her before she successfully getting inside into a body by failing the ritual that the local tribe of Yamatai perfomed.
!!!! WARNING. PREVIOUS PARAGRAPHS CONTAINED SPOILERS. MAY PROCEED BY YOUR OWN CAUSE !!!!
If there's a fire, there's water to cool it down. If there's up, there's down. There's Yin and Yang. The balance will be achieved if one have another to complete the circle. So if above there are the differences between the game and the movie, below are the listed of similarities between the games and the movies. Maybe it's not perfect, but feel free to add it up by commenting on this post!
- The Island of Yamatai - On both movie and games the Yamatai is located at the most dangerous area on the vast sea. Even both of them named differently (on the movie the area was called Devil's Sea and on the game was called Dragon's Triangle), the area that guarded Yamatai breaks the Endurance very well, by the power of storm and the rage of oceans.
- Lara's Outfit - Since the moment she arrived and boarded into the Endurance, the similarity was like a synchro. Both of them are young, she tied her hair into ponytail, and wore blue-ish tanktop with beige pants.
- Lara's Weapons - Start from she met her long-lost father, Movie Lara will relied on her archery skills and the bow & arrows she took at her father's cave in order to met the Last Boss. The Game Lara was also relied on bow and arrows in order to survive. Both Lara will also encounter a pry axe, and funny thing is, it had the same colour. And talking about guns, Dual Magnum Pistols are acquired after her adventure on Yamatai ends. Talking about tie-ins!!
So...?
Tomb Raider (2018) could be breakdown into 60% materials came from Tomb Raider's games while the rest 40% are meant to be sequel-material matters. Just like an organisation that caused it all, either the disappearance of Lara's Father and the excavation. By mentioning or exposing it, there will be possibilities of a sequel.
The good thing of this movie was, the new generation of movie goers will met a new face of Lady Lara Croft, with more suitable preferences for today Millennial's markets instead of huge-racks Lara we used to have. It also shown that games nowadays are have an equal possibilities to be made into a movie.
But, not just because it was hype for the gamers, it also will happened to the movie goers. The results from IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes on this Millennial's Tomb Raider are in questionable. IMDb rate was 6.8/10 and RT was 50%. Does it mean, is it better than its predecessor? is this reboot considered as success on bringing the Tomb Raider's brand into having a new image? Are those rate considered good or not?
Conclusion
In the nutshell, Tomb Raider 2018 was a great movie. In the early scenes, you'll know they learned a lot from the game, and implemented several elements inside it. The action was well-packed, and the story was as quick as a jab. As a person who once played the game, I believe it was a tribute for it. From the outfit, the setting, and the weapons - it was a high-budget tribute towards a game that highly anticipated and hyped at its time.
The let down was there's no magical, mythical, ancient thingy that Lara will encounter. The movie lost the essential of Tomb Raider's formula. It must have a myth or spirits or ghosts or magic or ancients being or anything beyond logic that will encounter Lara along the way. That's why this movie have a kind of loose tie. I personally waiting for an army of armoured skeletons roared when they descended into the tomb. But no. The puzzle based on mechanical system and the-supposed-to-be-myth was actually a biological thing called virus. Are todays audience are more into real life, science-based, fictional movies? No more magical, unlogical, fictions?
But still, the legend of Tomb Raider was back into square one. Both for the game industry and the movie industry. The best thing we could do, as a gamer and/or as a movie goers, was wait. Will the developer made better movie than this? And will it surpass the old glory of big breast Lara Croft? Only time will giving the answer.
Until then, stay elevate!!
"E! LE! VA! TION!!! WOOOO WOOOOO!!" - Bono, U2.
