Lara Croft: Tomb Raider 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.5

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman March 19, 2018

With the release of the rebooted 'Tomb Raider' film (distributed by Warner Brothers), Paramount has dug into the archives to release the pair of Angelina Jolie Lara Croft films to UHD. This one boasts a 4K/Dolby Vision presentation but does not include an Atmos soundtrack, featuring, instead, a more basic DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 presentation. The bundled Blu-ray carries over previously released supplements from the 2006 release, and while it also carries over the same picture quality, it does contain the new DTS soundtrack. It's available separately in SteelBook packaging.

Lara Croft (Angelina Jolie) is a wealthy adventurer who, with the help of her butler Hillary (Chris Barrie) and companion tech wiz Bryce (Noah Taylor), spends her time and her fortune on various global adventures, securing rare artifacts and not shying away from a fight as necessary. In Venice, the secret society Illuminati is angling to come into possession of two haves of a triangle in order to channel the mysterious power of a rare astrological event. Their front man on the mission is the focused and determined Manfred Powell (Iain Glen), a cunning man who is wise enough to use Lara's own curiosity and quest for the pieces, spurred on by a vision of, and clues left behind by, her late father. Lara embarks on a dangerous adventure, battling Manfred and his men along the way, in an effort to keep extreme power out of the wrong hands.

The film's plot is razor-thin, even if it's steeped in needless complexities involving secret societies, ancient artifacts, time loops, robots, and other various, frivolous details. It's all just smoke and mirrors, really, a flimsy and heavily contrived narrative that's a framework for big set pieces, huge action extravaganzas, and, of course, Angelina Jolie in skimpy clothes that show off her bare arms and legs and voluptuous chest. "A lady should be modest," her butler tells her. "Yes, a lady should be modest," she replies, with a wink and a smile. It's a fun moment and the finest few seconds of character building the movie has to offer. If in that scene she'd been posing with a gun it would it have completed the illustration.

Jolie is fine in the role, bringing enough spunk, energy, and action scene capabilities to the character. Of course, that the film plays like a hybrid of the Tomb Raider video games with a bit of Indiana Jones, The Mummy, name-that-Adventure-movie with some Sci-Fi undercurrents. Altogether the conglomeration of styles don't really allow Jolie to fully absorb into the character, at least as the character is presented through the source video game's various arcs. Still, as a fairly generic action figure, it's a good physical performance which Jolie compliments with a handful of plot-shaping but, for the audience, largely emotionally vacuous moments in which she interacts, in one way or another, with her late father, portrayed by the ever-capable Jon Voight. The film also features a pre-Bond Daniel Craig in a major role.

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The included screenshots are sourced from a 1080p Blu-ray disc. Watch for 4K screenshots at a later date.

Per Paramount, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider's UHD arrives on the format by way of a 4K scan from the 35mm source (as opposed to the sequel, which is sourced from a 2K DI). This 2160p/Dolby Vision-enabled presentation is largely fantastic. Grain retention is often thick, more dense than most shot-on-film UHD releases thus far, and fluctuations in intensity are not uncommon. Still, the net result is a very flattering filmic appearance that accentuates the image's high-yield textural delights in nearly every scene. The product is very sharp and Paramount's UHD handles everything, including ornate furnishings and structural details in Venice, Lara's mansion, and roughly edged natural landscapes and sharp and distinct ancient ruins, with ease. Each environment is a treasure of intimate, tangible complexity with extremely fine detailing evident on nearly every surface. One great example is scattered debris in Lara's mansion following a battle, seen more clearly in the aftermath during clean-up efforts in chapter five. Additionally, essential up-tight elements -- basics like clothes and faces -- reveal superb and high attention to detail complexities. Pores, hairs, and various fabrics are presented with impeccable definition in close-up and striking clarity even at medium distance.

The 12-bit Dolby Vision coloring doesn't appear to yield anything out of the ordinary in terms of extreme color vitality at first look during an uninterrupted, no comparisons watch, but there's a tangible sense of essential color depth and accuracy upon comparing with the comparatively bland and washed out Blu-ray. Natural greens pop and white flowers dazzle in one of the movie's most purely colorful shots around the 45-minute mark. A brilliantly presented red/orange "time bubble" effect offers striking color clarity and intensity in chapter 10. Even some of the grayscale interiors featured prominently in a large battle and key sequence in chapter seven look great, with plenty of obvious subtle variations in shading in what are firm, confident colors, even amongst those otherwise bland, dreary shades. Black levels are highly impressive in terms of depth and shadow detail. The print is meticulously clean and no encode issues are immediately apparent. Compared directly to the bundled Blu-ray, well, there is no comparison. The UHD absolutely blows it out of the water. Grain is much more refined, the image's textural qualities are significantly enhanced, and colors are appreciably more nuanced, deep, and refined. Compare a shot of the Croft mansion seen at the beginning of chapter 12. End of story. This is a very high yield UHD release from Paramount.

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider's UHD is curiously absent a Dolby Atmos soundtrack, which has by-and-large been the norm for Paramount 4K releases. The included DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack is certainly an upgrade over the original 2006 release's Dolby Digital and lossy DTS 5.1 presentations. This track is large and commanding, over-engineered for effect in that late 90s/early 2000s style through which everything sounds over-amplified and favoring large-scale effects and total stage saturation while not disregarding nuance but certainly leaving it second to the intensive primary sounds. From a core, nuts-and-bolts perspective, the soundtrack really rocks. Action scenes are awash in insane, excessive stage domination. Surrounds are fully engaged, more so in order to offer a blasting 360-degree sound field rather than to merely compliment and match the on-screen action. Gunfire rips through with plenty of raw aggression and heightened volume. Crashes hit hard while characters on wires and machines on gears -- notably a solar system model that's at the center of the action inn chapter 10 (and looks like something out of The Dark Crystal) -- swoop through with well defined stage traversal and a prominent low end support. One of the track's most prominent one-off sound effects may be heard during a pitch, climactic battle in chapter nine. A bell rings with a stage-filling, ear-piercing high frequency effect that completely saturates the listening area. Cavernous locales -- a large open-space Illuminati chamber interior in chapter two, an auction house in chapter three, a "tomb" in chapter seven -- allow for some enjoyable dialogue reverb effects. Essential dialogue is clear and refined. The track may be a little raw by today's standards, but it's a lot of fun. The lack of an Atmos presentation is disappointing, particularly for a movie with this much pure sound mayhem on tap, but Paramount's 5.1 track certainly gets the job done.

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider's bundled Blu-ray ports over the extras from the 2006 release. Below is a list of what's included. A UV/iTunes digital copy code is included with purchase.

• Audio Commentary: Director Simon West.
• Digging into Tomb Raider (480i, 25:27)
• Crafting Lara Croft (480i, 6:49)
• The Visual Effects of Tomb Raider (480i, 20:19 total runtime): An exploration of eight visual effects including Droid, Clock, Knife, The Husky, Stone Monkeys, Powell - Time Storm, The Brahman, and The Griffins.
• The Stunts of Tomb Raider (480i, 9:28)
• Are You Game? (480i, 8:00)
• Deleted Scenes (480i, 7:18 total runtime): Included are Powell Kills Wilson, Powell and Pimms, You Might Try to Kill Me, and Lara and Alex in Venice.
• Music Video (480i, 4:02): "Elevation" by U2.
• Alternate Main Title (480i, 2:06)
• Teaser Trailer (1080o, 2:03)
• Trailer (1080p, 2:19)

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider's peak in the film world might be living on as a guilt pleasure, but even with those modest aspirations it barely scrapes up to that level. It delivers satisfying essential action and well-crafted set pieces, but the story is at once both overly complex and mind numbingly empty, existing only to create a framework for the movie's highlight set pieces, gun fights, and flashy characters. Paramount's UHD handles the movie very well. It features excellent UHD/Dolby Vision picture quality and the included 5.1 lossless soundtrack is fun, if not a bit over-engineered. Supplements carry over from the old 2006 disc. Fans can buy with confidence.