Tomb Raider (2018) will make you say "Did she just lose some teeth? She should be spitting molar right now."

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I remember back in the day watching Angelina Jolie jump around and smirk with a fake accent and big boobs. Sorry. I can't help what I remember. I've moved on and so has Lara Croft. Ever since her new generation video game reboot, the Tomb Raider series has grown up a bit and put protagonist Lara Croft through her paces. The movie is no exception.

    Lara feels superbad her daddy went off raiding tombs without her, so she's living on the street racing bicycles and cage fighting. Seven years have gone by and if she can't find him, she'll have to declare him dead and inherit all his money. We can't have that, so it's off to Japan to find a secret island her daddy was looking for to protect a thing. Along the way she meets gets some help and opposition from other people and learns a lesson because that's how stories work.

    I can only really view this series through the idea I have from the video games. The new series punishes Lara so much, she might as well be Wolverine, which now that I think about it he also cage fought a lot. Anyway, action and adventure and stealth are the name of the game and the movie fills that with gusto.

    Tomb Raider is a mixed bag, borrowing heavily from action adventure movies that came before. If you don't see Indiana Jones, particularly Last Crusade with the father stuff and the clues, then you need to go watch that right now. The action is brutal and real, the characters likeable, and the overall time spent enjoyable.

    I only have two complaints: the beginning and the puzzles. The movie takes forever to get to the island and while it sets up Lara's character well it also just spins its wheels doing so. Some of the puzzles are also oblique at best with characters stepping forward and saying "I can solve that" and doing so. I guess I wish I was a little more in the loop.

Edit: Just read that writer, Geneva Robertson-Dworet, is writing for Captain Marvel so I'm pumped for that and the director of this movie is named Roar Uthang which is metal as fuck.Alastair