TOMB RAIDER

TOMB RAIDER

Film Review by FIORE

Hollywood is determined to shove its Women Warrior Agenda down the throats of viewers.  All their endeavors should be as strong as the latest incarnation of TOMB RAIDER.  This movie is fun; a great action adventure from beginning to end.  I could easily watch this one again.

TOMB RAIDER needed a reboot in celluloid because it underwent a similar process in its video game origin.  The Lara Croft of old, noted by her ever shifting bustline, and almost superhero abilities, embodied by Angelina Jolie on film, are gone, replaced by a sleek, obsessive-compulsive adventurer, in the guise of Alicia Vikander.

This movie is fast-paced, thanks to the editing of Stuart Baird, one of Tinsel Town’s premiere cutters.  The fight scenes are expertly choreographed by Grant Powell, so I never had to sit through the javelin-thin Vikander throwing around 300 lb. men as if they were toddlers.  Paul Linden provides provincial SFX, without going overboard and everything is wrapped in a rousing score by Tom Holkenborg (aka Junkie XL).

For seven years, Lara Croft (Vikander) lived without her father, Richard, played by Dominic West.  He was lost, searching for an uncharted island housing the tomb of Japanese sorceress Himiko.  She teams with Lu Ren, played by INTO THE BADLANDS star Daniel Wu, son of the sea captain who transported her father on his ill-fated voyage.  They find the island, and a mercenary troupe, led by Mathias Vogel, played by Walton Goggins.  The troupe, working under the auspices of a secretive organization known as Trinity, wants the Himiko tomb as well, for far more nefarious reasons.   Also starring are Kristin Scott Thomas, Derek Jacobi and Alexandre Willaume.

A word of caution to gamers:  the storyline in the film is significantly different than the three new videogames.  Because of Hollywood’s desire to spread the failed mantra of secular Humanism, the writers, Geneva Robertston-Dworet and Alastair Siddons, removed all elements dealing with religion and spirituality.  Even though the religious overtones in the game are based on Japanese culture, they are still treated as inconsequential to the TOMB RAIDER adventure.  Filmmakers did the same thing with DOOM, when a doorway to hell and demons were replaced by space zombies.

In addition, Queen Himiko in the games is an evil sorceress.  She is Queen of Death, and is one nasty villain for Lara.  But, in the day of the Woman Warrior Agenda, she cannot be bad, because Hollywood doesn’t make villains out of victims its attempting to elevate.  This queen is noble and one little girls would admire.  Big difference; and not a good one.

For those who are not gamers, TOMB RAIDER is a fun-filled action adventure worth the price of a ticket.  For gamers, there is sure to be chagrin over the producers’ politically correct vicissitudes.