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EW: Tomb Raider star Alicia Vikander teases her version of Lara Croft

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Lara Croft is finding her roots.

Next year's Tomb Raider reboot, adapted from the 2013 video game, portrays Croft (Alicia Vikander) as a young woman working an ordinary day job in London. A clue leads her to embark on a search for her presumed-dead archeologist father (Dominic West).

”She has all the fierce, tough, curious, intelligent traits," Vikander says, ”but we've stripped away all of her experience. She hasn't gone on an adventure just yet. She thought he was a stuck up businessperson living in the modern youth culture of suburban London, but then this whole box of information. This is the beginning."

For the 28-year-old actress, starting from the beginning was a major pull for doing the film. ”I was surprised that my mum knew what Tomb Raider was. That's due to the fact that Angelina Jolie made Lara Croft such an icon. But this is a beautiful way of showing a very loved character from more angles."

Jolie, interestingly, starred in the first Tomb Raider movie in 2001, two years after winning the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Girl, Interrupted, a timeline that Vikander is echoing. (The Swedish actress won Best Supporting Actress in 2016 for The Danish Girl.) ”I'm emotionally drawn to something that's very different from what I've done before," she says. ”Naturally that gives me an extra thrill. I have mostly done dramas and indie films in my career but I don't know how many times I've watched big adventure films like Indiana Jones or The Mummy. I love to get embraced in all those big journeys and to do an action role has always been a child's dream of mine."

And Vikander's background as a dancer prepared her for all the challenges that director Roar Uthaug (2015's intense disaster movie The Wave) tossed her way.

”Just like in The Wave, we have a lot of water sequences," she says. ”I spent my last two days of shooting in a tank and that was my 16th total day being fully drenched or submerged in the water."

So come March 16, 2018, we'll get to watch Croft — and Vikander — basically sink or swim. ”For one action scene, we used the London venue for Olympic rafting," she says with a bemused laugh. ”They threw me down that river — with my hands tied — about 50 times. I didn't need to act, just react!"

Vikander, also, feels fortified by the success of a recent female action hero onscreen. ”I went to the cinema and saw Wonder Woman the other day. It's a mixture of joy and sadness pouring over me, as I was thinking, ‘Oh, my God, I haven't seen women onscreen like that.' And I wondered how many stories there have there been throughout the years that haven't been told. If Wonder Woman made such an impact, which it deserves to, then we need to use ten times as much force to make some change. Because it needs to happen."
 

Slaythe

Member
Very cool.

Loved the 2013 game.

Hope to see trailer soon.

The 2013 game was garbage and so was Lara in the sequel.

Terrible characterization.

But Vikander is great and they have Walton Goggins on board too, so I'm cautiously optimistic for the movie.
 
Alicia Vikander is a treasure. Fantastic young actress with a heap of indie and award cred, fangirling about doing an adventure movie like Indiana Jones. She's right about Wonder Woman too.
 

Mediking

Member
The 2013 game was garbage and so was Lara in the sequel.

Terrible characterization.

But Vikander is great and they have Walton Goggins on board too, so I'm cautiously optimistic for the movie.

2013 game wasn't garbage. It was fun. Story was bad.

Sequel wasnt as good but its a pretty game for sure.

Lara deserves to be written well.
 

enzo_gt

tagged by Blackace
Adapting from the 2013 game is the way to go. Night and day how much better that version of Laura is from previous interpretations.
 

Zakalwe

Banned
The 2013 game was great. New Lara was great. Alicia will be great.

New Lara is one of the worst examples of a "character" in a high profile game in ages.

Basing a film on games with terrible writing, character,s and story is not a good starting point.

Adapting from the 2013 game is the way to go. Night and day how much better that version of Laura is from previous interpretations.

Better doesn't mean good.

And I think that despite the older Lara being problematic in /many/ ways, it wouldn't be a clear cut win for new Lara.
 
i hope this is decent. it could be a fun action adventure franchise. with perfect timing too considering this trend of female action protagonists that started to get hold a few years ago. and I love the cast. Vikander, Dominic West and Goggins are all great.

hopefully it's nothing like the reboots though, the lara in those games just screams for like 12 hours. shit got annoying pretty fast.

Now, an excellent Lara Croft...Angelina Jolie. She did an amazing job of portraying that character.
Also this http://www.strangepersons.com/images/content/174872.gif

Leaving it as a link due to being a bit NSFW.

whew. Jolie looked so damn good in those movies.
 

ShyMel

Member
If I remember correctly, the focus of the first reboot game was Yamatai and Queen Himiko, so turning the focus onto her father will change somethings story wise.
 

Peru

Member
The reboots are garbage, new Lara is garbage, no opinion on Alicia (never seen anything of hers), not that optimistic about this movie.

Now, an excellent Lara Croft...Angelina Jolie. She did an amazing job of portraying that character. .

Wow. If the cookie cutter early 00s plastic fantastic action movie version of Lara is what you think is fantastic I'm not surprised we disagree on the direction the film should take.

The Jolie movies are unwatchable today.

The reboot games have been great and put Lara in a very interesting position, where she finds her strength and her passion. The setting of the first game, alone on this big island, is a great foundation for a movie to take place. The execution of the story elements, particularly the supernatural villain clique, was at times shabby and forgettable in the game, but that has no say over what the movie, with an unrelated screenwriter, will do with the same foundation.

The character of Lara is already pretty interesting in the games, finding out about her family's past, growing tougher in an extreme climate. The complaints about how she was torture porn'd or whatever don't really hold up to scrutiny. That's literally just the first scenes of the game.
 

Daffy Duck

Member
The 2013 game was garbage and so was Lara in the sequel.

Terrible characterization.

But Vikander is great and they have Walton Goggins on board too, so I'm cautiously optimistic for the movie.

Nah, not at all.

It was by all means a terrible Tomb Raider game compared to the originals, but as an action based Tomb Raider game it delievered for me and was far from garbage.
 

tuxfool

Banned
Wow. If the cookie cutter early 00s plastic fantastic action movie version of Lara is what you think is fantastic I'm not surprised we disagree on the direction the film should take.

The Jolie movies are unwatchable today.

The reboot games have been great and put Lara in a very interesting position, where she finds her strength and her passion. The setting of the first game, alone on this big island, is a great foundation for a movie to take place. The execution of the story elements, particularly the supernatural villain clique, was at times shabby and forgettable in the game, but that has no say over what the movie, with an unrelated screenwriter, will do with the same foundation.

The character of Lara is already pretty interesting in the games, finding out about her family's past, growing tougher in an extreme climate. The complaints about how she was torture porn'd or whatever don't really hold up to scrutiny. That's literally just the first scenes of the game.

Everything about this interpretation is wrong.

Well not everything, the old TR films were not good either. But the old Lara being cookie cutter at least started at 0 instead of the absolute garbage tier of the new lara.
 

Zakalwe

Banned
Wow. If the cookie cutter early 00s plastic fantastic action movie version of Lara is what you think is fantastic I'm not surprised we disagree on the direction the film should take.

The Jolie movies are unwatchable today.

The reboot games have been great and put Lara in a very interesting position, where she finds her strength and her passion. The setting of the first game, alone on this big island, is a great foundation for a movie to take place. The execution of the story elements, particularly the supernatural villain clique, was at times shabby and forgettable in the game, but that has no say over what the movie, with an unrelated screenwriter, will do with the same foundation.

The character of Lara is already pretty interesting in the games, finding out about her family's past, growing tougher in an extreme climate. The complaints about how she was torture porn'd or whatever don't really hold up to scrutiny. That's literally just the first scenes of the game.

Lara 2013 is a terribly written character. The objectification stuff can be ignored and this is still true.
 

Peru

Member
The original games are mechanically completely outdated, and the character of Lara is a simple pin-up babe. The new ones, especially the 2nd one, control really well. look brilliant, and often strike a better balance between adventure and action than the Uncharted games.

It's a great place to start for the movies. Whatever your issues are with the specific writing of the games is in any case not relevant, as the screenwriter of the movie will do her thing. It's like saying "oh no, Lara will possibly be on an island, and not surrounded by early 00s CGI explosions, the movie is ruined".
 
I loved TR 2013 and RotTR, so I'm mildly intrigued.

But video game movie history tells me to temper my expectations greatly.
 

SolVanderlyn

Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
The 2013 game was garbage and so was Lara in the sequel.

Terrible characterization.

But Vikander is great and they have Walton Goggins on board too, so I'm cautiously optimistic for the movie.
Yeah, the games were bad. The movie, for once, has more potential than they did
 

tuxfool

Banned
I'm not really going to prize the opinion of anybody that considers the characterization, writing and story of the new TR games. Games were fine, but game mechanics aren't really a good foundation to base a movie upon.

At least I won't have to hear Camilla Luddington's horrid voice work
Yeah, at least it has that going for it. Hope Alicia Vikander isn't asthmatic.
 

Necron

Member
The 2013 game was great. New Lara was great. Alicia will be great.

New Lara is one of the biggest missed opportunities regarding "rebooting". A game that is neither good nor bad, just extremely boring and safe.

Hopefully, Shadow of the Tomb Raider finally gives us something interesting.

Edit: based on the people involved with the film, I'm sure it will be "at least decent". Which is probably how I'd describe the games now that I think of it.
 

Grizzlyjin

Supersonic, idiotic, disconnecting, not respecting, who would really ever wanna go and top that
If The Shallows can be half way good, this has a chance. What I could see going wrong is them introducing the supernatural elements early in the film and playing them up throughout. Where usually with Tomb Raider or Uncharted or even Indiana Jones, there's a buildup.
 

Zakalwe

Banned
New Lara is one of the biggest missed opportunities regarding "rebooting". A game that is neither good nor bad, just extremely boring and safe.

Hopefully, Shadow of the Tomb Raider finally gives us something interesting.

Are they really calling it that?

I thought "Rise of the Tomb Raider" was the worst edge-title ever, but they seem to have topped it quite effortlessly...
 

T.O.P

Banned
The reboots are garbage, new Lara is garbage, no opinion on Alicia (never seen anything of hers), not that optimistic about this movie.

Now, an excellent Lara Croft...Angelina Jolie. She did an amazing job of portraying that character.
Also this http://www.strangepersons.com/images/content/174872.gif

Leaving it as a link due to being a bit NSFW.

Jolie looked incredible in that movie, i actually liked it back in the day, good fun
 

Sheroking

Member
I'm not really going to prize the opinion of anybody that considers the characterization, writing and story of the new TR games. Games were fine, but game mechanics aren't really a good foundation to base a movie upon.
.

The game mechanics are mostly survivalist fare. It translates infinitely better to film than side flips, dual pistols and the random dinosaurs in TR1 ever did.
 
The original games are mechanically completely outdated, and the character of Lara is a simple pin-up babe. The new ones, especially the 2nd one, control really well. look brilliant, and often strike a better balance between adventure and action than the Uncharted games.

It's a great place to start for the movies. Whatever your issues are with the specific writing of the games is in any case not relevant, as the screenwriter of the movie will do her thing. It's like saying "oh no, Lara will possibly be on an island, and not surrounded by early 00s CGI explosions, the movie is ruined".

The old games aren't outdated, aside from maaaybe the original. 2-Chronicles all hold up very well, and the game is built around the 'tank controls', so they're not a problem.

I just hope they'll go more down the route of an inexperienced Lara Croft trying to make her way through an island with some form of bad guy, slowly building up confidence and experience along the way, and not the 2013 thing of Lara Croft is on an island with a bunch of forgettable people, she gets the absolute hell beat out of her, before turning into the end action scene of Rambo half way through, and mowing her way through the island.
 

Volimar

Member
The old games aren't outdated, aside from maaaybe the original. 2-Chronicles all hold up very well, and the game is built around the 'tank controls', so they're not a problem.

I just hope they'll go more down the route of an inexperienced Lara Croft trying to make her way through an island with some form of bad guy, slowly building up confidence and experience along the way, and not the 2013 thing of Lara Croft is on an island with a bunch of forgettable people, she gets the absolute hell beat out of her, before turning into the end action scene of Rambo half way through, and mowing her way through the island.


The OG tomb raider controls gave me fits.
 
The OG tomb raider controls gave me fits.

There's nothing wrong with them really, except for the occasional timed section where you have to do a lot of intricate platforming.
For most things, you just walk to the edge (you can't fall off if you walk to the edge of a ledge), back step, then jump across.

TR2013 has high 80% metacritics score. Since when is it a trash game?

Crash Bandicoot 3 is a 91 on Metacritic, and that's apparently a trash game that people only played because they didn't have an N64 to play Mario 64 according to some people on here.

Personally, I wasn't a fan of TR 2013, but it was by no means a bad game, just not my cup of tea.
 

Sheroking

Member
The old games aren't outdated, aside from maaaybe the original. 2-Chronicles all hold up very well, and the game is built around the 'tank controls', so they're not a problem.

It's hard to say they didn't hold up, because they weren't good games when they released. Everything but the original, which benefited strongly from being one of the earliest 3D action games, was treated with a resounding "meh" by critics and most of the audience alike. By the time we got to the PS2 era, that franchise was niche as hell.

Lara herself was only ever relevant because of an embarrassing character model and the worlds most infamous nude mod. Jolie put that character into the gaming hierarchy in a way the games never, ever earned and that's frankly why I'm not offended that they went/are going the way they did.
 

Zakalwe

Banned
TR2013 has high 80% metacritics score. Since when is it a trash game?

It's not a trash game, but it does have trash writing, characterisation, and story telling.

And as a film has little to do with the "game" parts there's not much to base your faith on here...
 
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