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Mormon Moviegoers is a collective of LDS film reviewers helping you to make informed decisions about Hollywood films. It was founded by family counselor Jonathan Decker (of ).
WHAT’S TOMB RAIDER ABOUT?
Set seven years after her father’s disappearance, Lara Croft (now 21), journeys to his last known destination to find out what happened to him. (Rent or buy it here)
IS IT ANY GOOD? (GRADE: C)
Based on the 2013 video game reboot of the same name, I know that there were many high hopes for this reboot. Unfortunately, the studio sacrificed the making of a good movie by giving us a rather boring storyline (you’ve seen it before, trust me) and placing far too much importance on showing us what this iteration of Lara Croft (played by Alicia Vikander) can survive, rather than giving us a character and narrative that the audience cared about.
Alicia Vikander does the best with what she’s got, and she isn’t a bad Lara Croft. She’s probably the best thing about the movie, despite the fact that 90% of the movie is her surviving one impossible scenario after another. After a certain point (maybe the 19th or 20th time Lara manages to escape death), you just have a hard time investing in the movie.
If you take the movie for what it is (a 2-hour block of non-stop violence and action), without looking for anything new or an interesting take on the Lara Croft character, then you’ll probably enjoy it. If you look for anything more than that you’ll be disappointed.
IS IT OKAY FOR YOUR FAMILY?
The violence in Tomb Raider is mostly bloodless, but there is a lot of it, and it gets quite intense. Scenes with (spoilers!) guns, stabbings, explosions, and beatings aren’t unusual. There are also several scenes with intense one on one fighting where the end result is someone’s death. Death is usually shown onscreen and up close.
There are several uses of the s- word, and a few places where a character starts to use the f-word but is cut off before finishing.
A character is shown to be quite drunk and has a gambling addiction.
ANY WORTHWHILE MESSAGES?
Sacrifice for others and you will be rewarded for your efforts (see “Sacrifice”- By Elder Dallin H. Oaks). Perseverance is worth the effort (see “Perseverance”- By President James E. Faust)
For movie night recommendations and Gospel discussion guides, order 250 Great Movies for Latter-day Families, available in paperback and Kindle.
Lindsi currently works for BYU in the Theatre and Media Arts department, and is a freelance technical director and stage manager for several theatre companies in the Utah Valley area. In her free time she loves photography, stand up paddle-boarding, running 5k’s, reading, spoiling her nieces and nephews, and (you guessed it!) watching movies. For more of Lindsi’s writing visit lindsimichellephotography.blogspot.com.
JohnApril 11, 2018
"Safe for children" a nice approach, if you're writing for "the Frien". As an adult, sans des infants, I'm not interested in what aspects of a film might appeal to children. I want to know if it's well written, have an important message, and has artistic merit. People in different age groups expect different things from the media they chose. If I want to know if a film contains nudity or profanity, I'll go to IMDB.