Tomb Raider
Alicia Vikander brilliantly takes on the famous role of Lara
Croft in this franchise reboot. While I do have more affection for the 2001
film featuring Angelina Jolie at her bad-ass best, this iteration is still an
intermittently entertaining, albeit grittier, take on the character. Director
Roar Uthaug starts off strong with an exciting and surprisingly interesting
opening act before things become more standard with the introduction of the
villain (portrayed by a disappointingly lacklustre Walton Goggins). The action
following the introduction, while competently constructed, pales in comparison
to similar adventure films. Throughout it all, though, Vikander shines. She
makes Lara into a fun and authentic character, aided by engaging support from
Dominic West as Lara’s father and Daniel Wu as her travel companion Lu Ren,
with fun appearances from the likes of Kristen Scott Thomas, Derek Jacobi and
Nick Frost. This is likely one of the better video game adaptations, even
though that isn’t saying much. While I love Vikander and hope to see more of
her as this character, there’ll hopefully be something more fresh and
energised to further emphasise and reward the efforts
of its leading lady in any possible future instalments.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5
Pacific Rim:
Uprising
Giant robots once again fight giant monsters in this
fitfully enjoyable, but mostly uninspired, sequel to 2013’s Pacific Rim. John Boyega (better known
as Finn from Star Wars) proves to be
a quirkily enjoyable lead, and his chemistry with the equally interesting
Cailee Spaeny leads to some likeable banter. It’s a shame that none of the
other characters go beyond either thinly-written, pure stereotype or both; Tian
Jing (who made such a strong impression in last year’s The Great Wall) continues to be under-used, Scott Eastwood still
fails to leave much of an impact as an actor and the returning trio of Rinko
Kikuchi, Charlie Day and Burn Gorman are either treated poorly, given too
prominent a role or left to struggle with the tone (I really can’t emphasise
how misjudged Day’s expanded role is here). The bread and butter of the film, the visual
effects and the action, are still colourful enough to offer some
eye candy. Director Steven S. DeKnight does adequate work in his feature debut, but he
seems like more of a man-for-hire when compared with the affection and giddy
attention to detail apparent in Guillermo del Toro’s direction of the original. del Toro seemed to genuinely care about making a visually memorable and exciting film the first time around. Here, it overbearingly feels like a studio-mandated affair. There’s also the baggage of too much exposition, one of the most awkwardly half-baked romantic triangles in recent memory (if you could even call it that) and an
ending which screams of sequel begging. Altogether, Pacific Rim: Uprising feels like a forced imitation of everything
that made the original such an energetically large-scale yet oddly personal
affair.
Rating: 2 out of 5
