Recap And Initial Thoughts On Tomb Raider Trailer 

The wait is finally over for Tomb Raider fans, and having seen the first trailer for the upcoming film, there is so much to be taken in, but first a recap:

At the start of the trailer we see a worn down Lara running through a forest and in the background we hear someone ask for her name to which she responds with her first name. The scene then cuts to a setting where Lara seems to be at her family company and then provides the character her surname Croft which leaves the front desk attendant surprised. The trailer then cuts to dialogue which establishes how much she is like her father with a glimpse of a flashback scene, which then leads to a shot of Lara being fixated on a puzzle which when solved reveals a key. Lara then finds the key and unlocks her father’s secret workplace along with a camcorder which consists of a message from her father explaining how her father found a tomb called The Mother of Death. Lara’s father then goes on to explain, “If Trinity succeeds, our world is in danger. Promise me you will stop them.” Through this dialogue we see cuts of action alongside Lara exploring her father’s workspace. The trailer then shows Lara with Daniel Wu who portrays Lu Ren when she claims she knows where her father went to, which Lu does not agree to explore. We then see Lara’s ship destroyed much like the video game reboot portrays, and we then cut to see Walton Goggins who portrays Mathias. We hear dialogue which further establishes the similarities with her father followed by more action sequences. After the title screen, we see Nick Frost appearing to sell guns to Lara which nods to the source material by having her iconic braid and dual pistols.

While there is much to be said about this trailer, my initial thoughts are optimistic for this film, and while it may not appear to be the curse breaker on video games, it has great potential to do so. It is excellent to see how true it is to the source material while also borrowing heavily from the recent video game reboot. The film appears to be headed in the right direction on how Lara’s personality is, and also makes sure to establish the immense role her father plays in her life. The two nods I noticed in the trailer was the emphasis of the puzzle in which the video games are notorious for. The second nod was obviously at the last scene where we see Lara with her dual pistols and braided hair. The second reference to the game makes me question when exactly does this take place in the movie since we hardly ever see her sporting any weapons or a braid in the bulk of the trailer, nonetheless, it was a fun thing for the fans to get excited for.

The film seems to be borrowing heavily from the Tomb Raider video game reboot by including the organization Trinity and the character Mathias Vogel, which have only been seen in the recent reboot. With this great inspiration from the first game of the reboot, I only hope it is not a simple rehash of the first game which provides a nice story, but probably won’t translate well into a film.

No matter how the film may turn out, you can expect me as a fan to see this film and hope it does the character right and possibly even break the video game movie curse.

Tomb Raider is set to be released in theatres on March 16, 2018.

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