This was an easy 3.5/5 until the last act. It had me asking questions, wondering what was going on, what was going to happen and worrying about the lead character's family. At the end though, he puts his ex-wife and daughter in unnecessary danger and I don't know what his plan was if his daughter actually did what he said and left. I kind of feel bad for not giving it a higher mark based on how much I was enjoying the majority of the movie, but the end put a large damper on my enjoyment.
This starts off a tad slow but it doesn't take too long to get into the swing of things with Lara refusing to believe her father is dead, leading her to make a dangerous journey to an island where he was last believed to have been, seven years prior. There are some flashbacks that let us know how close Lara is/was with her father but the background to Lara's skills and strengths, are not explained in as much detail as other origin tales. I mean, she could be an Olympic long jumper or gymnast with her power and strength. All it really shows us is that she practised archery as a child/teen. Later in life, in one of the earliest scenes we see Lara training for mixed martial arts, however, she loses, to a female, of her weight. Which has relevance to a scene later on, when she holds down a muscular male who is twice her size. I mean, Ronda Rousey tips the scales at just over 60kg, and could no doubt take down a lot of men, but it still seems unlikely.
While the plot is simple, and has parallels between the great video game reboot in 2013, the action scenes and set pieces, throughout the early-middle stages of the film particularly, are entertaining and beautifully set. Along with Alicia, there are also some fantastic picturesque scenes here providing eye candy from the lush environments.
As mentioned, the plot is simple, the action is well done, without feeling like a CGI fest, there are some great actors featured, and until they start raiding the dark tomb in the final third or so of the film, it's a great film to look at. More enjoyable than the previous Tomb Raider films in my opinion. Some have commented that at times Lara takes a back seat in this to other characters, and while I don't completely agree with that, hopefully it gets a sequel and we see Lara play a larger role regarding the clue finding and gun-totting, which the closing scene hints at, as she purchases the iconic duel pistols she has had by her side in most of her games since 1996.
