“I’ll take two.”

From Tomb Raider.

Lara Croft (Alicia Vikander) is struggling to except the disappearance of her father, Richard (Dominic West).  Richard Croft constantly gave his daughter puzzles all through her childhood, but his disappearance seven years ago threw Lara’s world upside down.  When Lara’s former guardian (Kristin Scott Thomas) finally convinces Lara to sign her father’s death papers and take control of the company, she is given one last puzzle from her father; that puzzle quickly leads to the discovery of Richard’s secret, adventurous life.  All his focus had been on an ancient empress of Japan, Himiko; legend claims that the sorceress could kill anyone with a single touch, until she was exiled by her seven generals to a long-forgotten island.  It was for this legendary curse that Lara’s father took off seven years ago; both to find the lost island and to keep a company called Trinity from unleashing the queen’s power on the world.  Never one to ignore a puzzle connected to her father, Lara heads off to find out what happened to him all those years ago.  She manages to make it to the island with the help of a drunken ship captain (Daniel Wu), but it is far worse than Lara could have imagined; not only has Trinity found the island, but the men (led by Walton Goggins) have spent the past seven years trying to access Himiko’s tomb and Lara has unintentionally handed the missing clue right into their hands.  Now it is up to Lara to stop Trinity before they can release whatever is in the tomb on the rest of the world.

This relaunching of the Tomb Raider franchise is a solidly-entertaining step in the right direction.  While the action is still “fun” and suitable for practically the whole family, it does have a stronger story line foundation than the original movies.  It follows the plot of the rebranded 2013 video game, but it’s definitely an origin story that can stand up for itself.  Vikander’s Croft is a perfect balance of determination and heart, which allows this more realistic (and believable) Tomb Raider to shine as the fun adventure that audiences will truly enjoy.

| Rated: PG-13 | Running Time: 122 minutes |Genre: action/fantasy/thriller |

||Family Viewing||Cursing: 4 of 10|Nudity: 0 of 10|Sexuality: 0 of 10|Gore: 4 of 10

|AVAILABLE FOR HOME VIEWING|