In this article, I’ll discuss the newTomb Raidermovie. Can it break the curse of the crappy video game movie and perform well both critically and commercially? Here’s hoping!
A new Tomb Raider movie is coming. Will it be a treasure or terrible?
There’s only a few weeks to go until the newTomb Raidermovie is released. And so far, it actually looks pretty good. It’s based on the 2013 reboot ofTomb Raider, which had a more serious tone and was more realistic than the otherTomb Raidergames. That could translate into a decent movie. Another big tick in its favour is that Uwe Boll isn’t directing it. I want to believe! I’ll certainly go and check it out myself when it’s released, anyway.
Next up, there’s an extract from an interview withTomb Raider’s director, Roar Uthaug. The full interview was originally published in March 2018’s edition ofXbox - The Official Magazine.
Roar Uthaug Tomb Raider Interview
How much inspiration did you take from the 2013 Tomb Raider game - are we right in thinking that the story of the movie is based almost entirely on that game?
We’ve taken a lot of inspiration from that game but I feel that we’ve also created our own story for the movie that’s separate from the game, whilst still drawing inspiration from that piece.
How has it been working with Alicia Vikander?
It’s been wonderful. She’s such a hard-working actress. She really dived into it head-first and worked really hard with her trainer to get in shape for everything she had to be put through, and with the stunt co-ordinators and the fight co-ordinators. She really worked her ass off to get into the Lara Croft character and to get ready for everything that we had coming for her.
The training looks like it was really intense. Was it important to you to make Lara believably tough, or was that somethign that Alicia wanted to do herself?
I think we both agreed - we had a very similar vision of what Lara Croft should be and we wanted her to be this strong and confident hero, but also be vulnerable and imperfect, and I think that’s what makes her likeable and relatable.
How much experience did the rest of the cast have with the game? Did you make them play it through before filming as a research tool?
It was in some parts, for me and Alicia. I know Alicia played the game a lot. Also, in some parts when discussing scenes with the cinematographer or production design it was useful. But then we also tried to put the game aside and made what we thought was the best movie version of Lara’s story.
And what can you tell us about the bad guy in the story?
He’s played by Walton Goggins as Mathias Vogel. He’s a bit different to the Matthias Vogel from the game, we’ve taken some creative freedom in making that charcter.
It’s cool that you’re changing things up - it means people who have played the game won’t know everything that’s going to happen in the film.
Yeah, the gamers that played the game will know the game. You don’t want to sit in the cinema and see the same things happen again. We wanted to give the fans something new, and we also wanted to make something that will appeal to an audience that is not familiar with the game at all.
Most adaptions of videogames are notoriously tough to get right. What do you think makes this Tomb Raider movie different, and do you think fans will be pleased with what you’ve done?
I think so. I think both fans of the game and the general audience will be pleased, and enjoy seeing this. It has huge scope and scale, and incredible action, and a kick-ass heroine. And then it has Alicia Vikander playing this part in a very grounder, visceral way - I think that is something that the audience is going to enjoy.
You can check out the Tomb Raider trailer below:
Will you be heading to see the new Tomb Raider movie? Are you hopeful that it can be a successful film or will it just be another videogame flop? What are your favourite and least favourite video game movie adaptations? Please comment below and let us know.
So, I hope that you liked this article. If so, you may be interested in readingThe Last of Us: Why it didn’t blow my mindarticle. Alternatively, you could read thePlanet of the Apes VR Game announcedarticle instead.
