On the interview trail for Lara Croft: Tomb Raider’s release, Jolie described her version of the character as “fierce, and fun, and she loves adventure,” – sounds right – “and she’s very friendly: she’s not out to compete with other people, or men, and she doesn’t have this feminist- she just wants to have a good time”. Less fun are the daddy issues Lara is saddled with – the dream sequences with Jolie’s real father Jon Voigt, much hyped during publicity for the film, are in reality, a drag – as is the feeling that the filmmakers couldn’t quite decide what to do with their leading lady in her first outing. Pop quiz time: Set photo from Lara Croft: Tomb Raider or The Dark Crystal? When the location finally changes, the sets look a lot like Aughra’s place in The Dark Crystal, but cheaper. Then there’s the countdown to Lara actually leaving her mansion to explore other locales, which is funny, but frustrating. There’s some fun to be had with how vague the Illuminati villains of the film are – “We seek to fulfil an ancient prophecy” Okay, what’s that? “A sacred promise to our ancestors” Right…? – as well as Iain Glen’s poorly-dyed mullet, mascara, and magical travelling Moroccan-style sofas (he has one to flop into almost everywhere he goes). It isn’t even worthy of Chris Barrie (playing Butler Hillary), and he was in The Brittas Empire.
If the storyline chosen for the film isn’t compelling, her fans won’t want to sit and watch, especially when they can’t help her out of it with a Forward-Square-Circle button mash.
Tomb raider movie 2001 series#
Then there’s Lara, pulled from a series of games that don’t have a continuous canon, whose background, history and surroundings have been rewritten and tweaked with each new version. You have time to look around his surroundings, take in the storyline he’s been given… you’ll notice very quickly if it’s not particularly interesting. You enjoyed flinging the Prince from Persian rooftops on your Game Boy? Once he’s leapt to film, he doesn’t need your help to navigate the sandy terrain. – now isn’t the time), but they all share the same obstacle built in to the genre – asking a previously active audience to be passive. PoP: weird and messy white-washing, racist stereotypes, etc. For example, the Resident Evil film franchise has dragged on despite (not because of) its quality, and Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time thankfully came to an abrupt halt (or hit a wall, you might say) at film one in 2010 following poor reviews.Įach of these four examples of game-to-film have their own unique problems ( Clue: a too-2D original universe. The Tomb Raiderfilms weren’t going to be the latest in a proud lineage… and they don’t have an impressive legacy now, either. And Mario made his misfire in 1993 with Super Mario Bros., a film hated by critics, the paying public, and even star Bob Hoskins himself. Tabletop gaming brought us 1985’s film adaptation of Clue, a favorite in culty-corners now, but a financial and critical flop when released. Game-to-film is a genre with a rep so bad it borders on the Uwe Boll, and understandably so. Which was the first problem – adapting a game to film. So where else could such a popular and well-known character go next but to the blockbusters, to film? Objectified, empowered, or somewhere in between, she’d become a brand as recognisable outside of the gaming community as Sonic and Mario, with models signed on as official real-world Laras (Rhona Mitra and Nell McAndrew were some who took on the mantle) to walk among us mortals during publicity drives for the games.
New players looking back at her blocky body in the 1996 game might raise an eyebrow at the excitement (cough) she inspired back then, but something about Lara Croft as a character captured the cultural imagination, and it didn’t just hinge on the hot pants, or her bra size (though much has been written about both).
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