Tomb Raider Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.5

Tomb Raider Blu-ray Movie Review

Daddy Issues

Reviewed by Michael Reuben June 13, 2018

Tomb Raider is a franchise in search of a movie. With the 2013 reboot of the videogame series, a film version was probably inevitable, despite the mixed results of the earlier attempts starring Angelina Jolie. (The first film was a success; the sequel was not.) As before, the film's lead is a rising young star who had just won an Oscar, the stunts are elaborate and the effects are first-class. The director, Roar Uthaug, had proven his ability to wrangle a technically complicated production with his Norwegian disaster film, The Wave. All the right elements seemed to have been assembled for an exciting adventure film—but someone forgot to include interesting characters or a minimally credible story.

Returning to a familiar icon's origins worked to restart the James Bond franchise, so why not Lara Croft? The new Tomb Raider finds Lara (Alicia Vikander) before she becomes the athletic heroine of legend, working as a bicycle messenger in London and perpetually broke, even though she's heir to a Bruce Wayne-size industrial fortune and a palatial country estate. But Lara refuses to have anything to do with her family's wealth, because doing so would require her to acknowledge that her explorer dad, Lord Richard Croft (Dominic West), is never returning from the expedition on which he departed seven years ago. The psychology of this behavior—"I won't take family money because Daddy left me behind"—doesn't bear close scrutiny, which is probably why the film hurries over issues of character and motivation and immediately plunges Lara into extraneous action sequences, starting with a hazardous bike race through busy London streets.

Eventually Lara is persuaded to sit down with her guardian, Ana (Kristin Scott Thomas), and the Croft family lawyer (Derek Jacobi), from whom she receives a puzzle box that reveals her father's secret passion: the investigation of the paranormal, with specific focus on Himiko, a legendary Japanese queen of enormous power who was entombed on an uncharted Pacific island, Yamatai. Richard Croft believed he had located Yamatai, and Lara immediately departs for Hong Kong to retrace her father's footsteps. After yet another superfluous action sequence involving a chase through Hong Kong harbor, Lara finds Lu Ren (Daniel Wu), the son of the sea captain who disappeared with her father, and persuades him to embark on the same journey. (Why would Lu Ren undertake a voyage that he assures Lara will end in shipwreck and death? Don't ask; the film doesn't tell.)

Of course, Lara is not the only one looking for Himiko's tomb. When she and Lu Ren miraculously reach the island, they encounter Mathias Vogel (Walton Goggins), who represents a nefarious organization known only as Trinity and who has spent seven years doggedly dynamiting sites on Yamatai looking for Himiko's tomb. Lara's arrival is Vogel's salvation, because she's carrying with her the very thing that finally leads him to the right spot on the island: her father's diary, which Lord Croft left strict instructions for Lara to destroy, lest it fall into the wrong hands. Quicker than you can say Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the entire group is descending into extended underground caverns loaded with intricate booby traps leading to Himiko's last resting place. By that point, we're supposed to have learned a great deal about this ancient witch from Lord Croft, who has been spitting out reams of exposition in voiceover, video tapes and dictaphone recordings, but it barely sinks in, because Dominic West races through his monologues like there's someone standing off camera holding a stopwatch. Eventually we do get a scene reminiscent of the opening of the Ark of the Covenant in the original Raiders, and the bad guys suffer an analogous fate, though by less spiritual means. (Indeed, once the true nature of Queen Himiko's evil power is revealed, much of what follows doesn't make any sense, but I can't elaborate without major spoilers.)

There's nothing in Tomb Raider that hasn't been lifted from Indiana Jones or subsequent imitators like The Mummy series. But where those films had a sense of humor to complement their zest for adventure, Lara Croft's latest outing is a joyless affair, with a perpetually sullen heroine, a one-note villain and a remote father figure whose alleged love for his daughter feels less credible with each passing moment. It's a sad comment on a big-budget popcorn entertainment that the most entertaining sequences aren't the action set pieces but two brief scenes featuring married pawnbrokers played by Nick Frost (uncredited) and Jaime Winstone. They look like they're having fun.

Tomb Raider Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Tomb Raider was photographed digitally by George Richmond, the cinematographer of the Kingsman films, on a variety of Arri Alexa cameras, if IMDb is to be believed. Also according to IMDb, the film was finished on a digital intermediate at 4K, which would make Warner's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray a down-conversion from the master source. Whatever the provenance, the disc looks superb, with richly saturated primary colors—the island forest greens and browns are especially striking—consistently excellent detail and remarkable sharpness and clarity even in dark effects-laden scenes like the storm that wrecks Lu Ren's boat (ironically dubbed Endurance). When you get bored by the paper-thin plot, you can entertain yourself admiring the detailed production design, both practical and digital, in the re-creation of Hong Kong's harbor, the rocky shoals of Yamatai or the expansive catacombs that comprise Queen Himiko's tomb. Blacks are deep and solid when they occur, although Tomb Raider often follows the familiar visual strategy of tinting dark sequences blue to improve visibility, both at night and in the catacombs. Scenes set in Lara's past have the desaturated palette typically used for flashbacks in modern cinematography (probably because it's easy to create in post-production).

Returning to bad habits, Warner has mastered Tomb Raider with an average bitrate of 24.01 Mbps, leaving almost 20 GB of space unused on the BD-50. The encoding appears to be capable, but there's no excuse for such a low rate when so much space is available.

Tomb Raider Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Tomb Raider arrives with Warner's now-familiar audio choice between Dolby Atmos (with a Dolby TrueHD 7.1 core, for those who can't yet play Atmos) and a redundant DTS-HD MA 5.1 track. The disc defaults to the latter; so be sure to choose the Atmos track from the "Audio" menu before you hit "play".

The Atmos track is every bit as robust, aggressive and active as one would expect from a contemporary adventure tentpole film. The storm that wrecks the Endurance on the rocks of Yamatai is alive with crashing waves, buckling metal, lashing rain and pounding thunder. Lara's leap into the perilous rapids of an island river, followed by her even more perilous struggle to escape by climbing the wreckage of a downed World War II aircraft, is a symphony of racing currents, crumbling rusted structures and tumbling debris. The traps in Queen Himiko's tomb strike from all directions, and the soundtrack tracks them precisely. Even Lara's archery provides a distinctive sonic impression, with arrows traveling audibly through the listening space. The Atmos track displays the format's usual virtues at optimizing one's system to place sounds in distinct locations throughout the room. If sound effects editing were enough on its own to carry a movie, Tomb Raider would be a great film.

The dialogue is clearly rendered and properly localized. Tom Holkenborg a/k/a "Junkie XL" (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice) provided the grandiose score.

Tomb Raider Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Tomb Raider: Uncovered (1080p; 1.78:1; 7:06): This is a typically polished studio-produced EPK with an array of participants that includes director Roar Urthaug, producers Graham King and Patrick McCormick, and actors Alicia Vikander ("Lara"), Daniel Wu ("Lu Ren"), Walton Goggins ("Mathias Vogel") and Dominic West ("Richard Croft").



• Croft Training (1080p; 1.78:1; 6:06): A look at Vikander's rigorous training regimen, which began three months before principal photography.



• Breaking Down the Rapids (1080p; 1.78:1; 5:34): A closer look at one of the film's most elaborate stunt sequences.



• Lara Croft: Evolution of an Icon (1080p; 1.78:1; 9:53): A history of Lara Croft in the gaming world.



• Introductory Trailers: The film's trailer is not included. At startup, the disc plays trailers for Tag and The Meg.

Tomb Raider Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The final scenes of Tomb Raider confidently set up its sequel, as Lara identifies her true enemy and first picks up her trademark pair of pistols. It's a great moment, because Vikander finally flashes some of the cheerful grit that makes Lara Croft an appealing heroine—but then the end credits roll and we're left hanging, waiting for a continuation of the story that, given the film's weak box office, is unlikely to arrive. If you're going to make an origin story, it needs to offer something more than a loudly busy but instantly forgettable two-hour prologue. Not recommended.