Tomb Raider movie review & film summary (2018)

In the end, though, this is a movie about a woman running, running, running, running, then pausing just long enough to kill a man with a bow and arrow, defeat him in hand-to-hand combat, or solve a tumbler-styled puzzle that will open the stone door of a temple containing ancient treasures. "Tomb Raider" treats Vikander as a moving piece of sculpture, admiring her not in a sexually objectifying way, but as one might an athlete. Director Roar Uthaug ("The Wave") often adopts the perspective of an especially kinetic videogame, shooting Vikander from a low angle as she races toward the camera or from an elevated perspective looking at the back of her head and her shoulders, the better to appreciate Lara as she cuts a path through her world. 

There are at least five action sequences in this movie that rank with the best I've seen recently. The first is a "fox hunt" on bicycles through the streets of London which sees Lara, who works as a messenger before embracing her destiny, leading a pack of her colleagues on a chase through winding streets packed with cars and trucks. Another finds Lara diving off a cliff into a raging river; she catches herself before going over a waterfall by clinging to a rusted-out, World War II-era bomber that's teetering on its edge, then gradually moves over and through the husk of the plane, trying to get to the riverbank before the whole thing falls apart. (A great Indiana Jones-style moment: as she hears the buckling groan and sees the plane falling to pieces, she mutters, "Really?") 

There are frustrations here and there, mainly having to do with the plotting and some of the supporting characters, who are lively and memorable but often lack one or two scenes that would've made them seem as mythically vivid as the material demands. (Vogel's misery is fascinating at first, but ultimately becomes tedious, and I didn't like the way the film sidelined Ren during the final act.) Still, this is a beautifully crafted and unpretentious piece of action cinema, with a number of sequences that are as gorgeous as they are thrilling, and a female hero who's as elegant as she is deadly: an ass-kicking Audrey Hepburn.