Why the 2018 Tomb Raider Failed Epicly

[RationalMale]

Like many, I had very high hopes for the 2018 Tomb Raider movie. It looked really promising. In my view, the Jolie movies had been God awful, and the games before the 2013 Tomb Raider Reboot had been awful. But, it flopped, for good reason. No, I'm not nitpicking a scene or a weapon. I think they missed everything that made the game amazing, while trying to copycat it badly. SPOILERS AHEAD

It was promising!

Let's go down a short list.

1. The Main Plot.

VS

What is the problem here? Simple.

The game was a smash hit because you played a hottie, yet not sex bomb or ridiculous, college girl Lara Croft. She wasn't out to save the world. She wasn't a trained fighter. She was not an arrogant Victorias Secret Model. She wanted to get an episode of National Geographic, basically. And instead she got thrown into almost Resident Evil--it was nightmare for her, and in the beginning of the game she feels our fear, and she has to go from being that hot college girl you had a class with once to being a brave fighter.

The movie? "SAVE THE WORLD FROM AN EVIL ORGANIZATION! YES, YOU ARE JAMES BOND REINCARNATED! YOU CAN DO IT!!! THIS MOVIE DOESN'T EVEN TRY TO BE SCARY EVER!"

Yeah. No. We've all seen a million B movies about saving the world from some evil organization. The game was better because it wasn't about the world--the world was fine. The problem was one island, and getting your friends off it alive. Remember that hit movie the Incredibles? The producers made a similar comment at the end. "Superhero movies, the endings are always about saving the world. We decided, forget that! We want the ending to be about saving one baby!"

2. Costars.

Soooo, in the movie we had two main co stars with Lara, two other heroes.

Mr. "We Want the China Box Office Money!"

I'm sorry, I don't even remember his name. He got shoehorned in... somehow? His dad had been a boat captain who worked with Lara's dad and somehow had the same name... something something. There are amazing Asian characters in Hollywood movies. And there are Asian characters who are blatantly there for the Chinese box office. This is the latter. And before you cry under representation, there's a billion Chinese in China. I have no doubt there's plenty of Chinese in Chinese movies, and probably done better than this half ass movie did this guy!

So this is Lara's dad. SURPRISE! Unlike the game, no, he did not die tragically giving Lara a sad backstory. We find out he basically abandoned her as a child to try to save the world on an island. Or something. And he could never come back, or something. He dies in the end of the movie after getting infected (instead of creepy somewhat supernatural enemies, the magic in this movie is just a plague from 400 years earlier) then blows of the tomb, who gives a damn.

Why does this matter? For one, a main plot line in the games is Lara's relationship with her dad--it is central to her character, and it develops. In the movie... congrats! Dad was not a noble figure or disturbed or anything, he abandoned you during childhood and faked his death. Because he had to save the world. In the movie, Lara is refusing to inherit his fortune, because he's not dead, she knows it. Then at the end, she happily has moved on and takes it... even though she literally regained her father who abandoned her only to leave him to die in a tomb hours later. but somehow things are alright now. Psycho much?

Who did he replace in game? Roth, the surrogate father who endears himself to us for hours, and who clearly has a lot of history with Lara.

Roth didn't abandon Lara as a child, or die cliche trying to save the world. In an amazing setup, Lara barely escapes the mountain temple, is dramatically saved by Roth, only for the chopper to be crashed just as they should be making a getaway. The pilot is dead, Lara is almost dead, Roth is in agony from his wounds, and the savage islanders (who, creepy enough, were once regular people like Lara and Roth) are closing in. He goes down saving Lara's life. Lara isn't a badass who handles it like a cliche--she bursts out sobbing.

3. The Lara.

Kinda already stated, but simply put.

That's a woman, right? I think? Maybe it's Sarah Connor on Steroids? Am I gay if I ogle her?

vs

No steroids! Go to your college gym and you'll see girls like that.

In summary.... I will be shocked if that movie gets a sequel. They screwed it. They didn't need an island or Roth, but they needed something better than a generic Gerard Butler flick! The videogame trilogy is on the 3rd, but this movie should be put to bed and smothered with the pillow along with Gerard Butler and Bruce Willis' latest action flicks.

[Anonymous]

The issue is also that Lara Croft will never translate well to film. Becuase there is only two ways you can do it, the action hero that's a knock off of Indiana Jones. Alternatively you can do the character driven version like the game reboot has chosen to be. The film reboot wanted both.

The only way I could see them doing good tomb raider film is by taking the Assassin's Creed route. Hear me out. The film wasn't good but it focused on the right stuff. The fun part of Assassin's Creed that can't be emulated in a medium that the audience is passive in is the free running, the part that isn't fun in the game but is interesting in a film is the narrative of the present day templars and assassin guilds as well as their influence across history. The only way a good tomb raider film could be made is focus on Lara during her youth and maybe her father as an Explorer showing a young girls intrest and growth from a young age to her early 20's where she starts finding an intrest in the supernatural or anchient civilisations. That way you can do the AC route and have it as a prequel to the rebooted games.

[Opinion Owner]

Hell it's also like hitman, the premis of a slow stealth infiltration movie might not be interesting but an action movie isn't faithful to the game so have a film where the target is the protagonist and the hitman is like the terminator. A thriller where the hitman can be in the back ground. Treat 47 like a horror villain. Not reckless like Michael Myres but ruthless like him.

[someguy81]

When they make games into movies, I get how much of a piss off it is when they change a lot of the backstory, but at the same time I'm kinda glad they do because I'm not sure I wanna see an exact recreation of the same story.

[RationalMale]

The backstory isn't vital. But they missed out on a lot of the impact the game had and made a b action movie instead

[Anonymous]

Hollywood producers ruin everything. The main actress Alicia failed really to get male attention, I know Hollywood and the gaming industry likes to say otherwise but guys are still the target audience for action flicks and video games as they seen in the majority of those that spends their money on them. Alicia was far too muscular like a body builder.

[ObscuredBeyond]

Guess I didn't miss much. Rampage turned out to be every bit as stupid as I expected it to be. Yeah, I prefer my women to look like actual women, even if it puts restrictions on their badassery. If I want something badass that looks masculine going all god mode on everyone, it's easier on my sensibilities to simply watch a man do it. Even then, it'd better be justified somehow by a plot device. Because a shallow Rambo knock-off purely for the sake of knocking off Rambo is so cliche and pointless.

This point was proven with the Die Hard series. Everyone loves the first one: Bruce Willis is flawed but likeable. He survives, but he's not a "perfect" action hero. In part 5, he's an embittered jackass who's all but invincible, and the franchise loses all credibility.

[Servus09]

Another doughy female with lots of sex appeal could have been cast for this role. They instead chose to create a believable female character. Alicia Vikander looked the part throughout the movie thanks to her training, and the character Lara Croft was showcased as a fierce competitor.

The movie was fan service to those who are fans of the video game franchise. If a second film is done it will likely have an allure to a much larger audience.

[think_logic85]

I have not seen the new Tomb Raider movie yet, so I can't comment on the "quality" of the main plot, acting or other aspects of it.

Domestically the film did not do well at all, but look at the numbers outside of the U. S, it definitely qualifies as a success and most losses in Domestic were covered up quite nicely in Foreign.

Production Budget: $94 million
Domestic: $57,421,715 21.0%
+ Foreign: $216,400,000 79.0%
= Worldwide: $273,821,71

[RationalMale]

What i am curious about is, how much did it actually net? After advertising, and all the revenue sharing with theaters and such? Because if it was simple as that im sure there would be a sequel announced.

[think_logic85]

The sequels don't get announced this early.
Currently the movie is in the phase of it's DVD/Blu-Ray Run (still on going)
Est. Domestic DVD Sales $4,564,033 Details
Est. Domestic Blu-ray Sales $8,204,302 Details
Total Est. Domestic Video Sales $12,768,335

For the month of March when it was released, it did pretty well, also it did quite well for a Video-Game movie, like Assassins Creed and Resident Evil. The overseas helped quite nicely in coming to the rescue of the movie.

The investors have to make a decision if it's profitable for them to invest again, as for the Marketing costs, people don't invest as much as they used to back in the day, because now they have their own online platforms like (twitter, snapchat, instagram, facebook, youtube and so on).

Here is another comparison, the last Resident Evil : The Final Chapter movie had a budget of Production Budget: $40 million, domestically it flopped hard with ($26) but look how much it gained overseas.

Domestic:
$26,830,068 8.6%
+ Foreign: $285,412,558 91.4%
= Worldwide: $312,242,626

They know that the Resident Evil franchise is still profitable to them, so the smart move they would take in the future would be to reboot the series and hope that it sticks to the wall.

[BCA6010]

In my opinion, this movie didn't do anything wrong, but it didn't do much to really stand out. I honestly forgot that it even came out this year, and when there weren't very many good movies at all the rest of the year, that's saying something when an action movie is forgettable.

I hope it gets a sequel if only to do better, but I'm really not going to lose sleep if it doesn't. In fact, I'll probably forget that I even said this by Wednesday.

[PerAsparaAdAstra]

Am I the only one who hates it when women look down and close their eyes when they are in pictures? It's not sexy and it's not attractive, it's kind of like basking in one's own glory. . .

[Other_Tommy_Wiseau]

Lol... yes? 🤷‍♂️

[PerAsparaAdAstra]

@Other_Tommy_Wiseau You're not INVOLVED in this, Tommy!

[InTimoreDei]

Not the only one... I can't stand it either. So many girls do that stupid pose. Pulling their skirt to the side while looking down is another one. And biting their tongue while smirking. And the knee bend pose as well.

[Kiran04]

Video game movies in general are all flops, save for a very select few built on the backs of actresses with unique charisma. Angelina Jolie was the reason the original Tomb Raider movie saw a sequel and Resident Evil was propelled by Milla Jovovich. Those franchises survived on actresses, not brand. The new Tomb Raider was a nobody who, although she was a decent actress, did not have the on screen presence to be memorable. It wasn't a bad movie, but it wasn't good either.

[Nivinxus]

Saw it, but it was so forgettable. I generally tend to think that if people want to put video games on the screen, TV series would be a better choice. More time to flesh out characters, input events that followed the timeline, etc.

[BellumEtPacem]

Good Mytake. I did see this movie in the theatres. I didn't hate it, but wasn't blown away by it either. I wish that it followed the game's storyline more. I wanted to see the Stormguard in action. I wasn't disappointed with Alicia Vilander's performance though. It was ok.

[dropkicknj13]

I didn't even realize a tomb raider movie came out this year lol

[ThisDudeHere]

The actress could pass for a MtF trans guy who's undergoing hormonal treatment.

[RationalMale]

It's not just the tiny tits and the steel abs, but also the hips. Why could she not have been more like

[ThisDudeHere]

I don't see any hips.

[Other_Tommy_Wiseau]

In fairness, this movie got >50% on imdb and rotten tomatoes. That puts it in the pantheon of video game movies considering they usually suck ass

[RationalMale]

Ehhhhh there is a little difference. Tomb Raider 2013 was very much a cinematic game that had a LOT going for it besides endless shooting like Max Payne, or freerunning and sneaking like Assassin's Creed, or the Hitman games whose main character is as shallow as a shot glass.

[Other_Tommy_Wiseau]

I mean, tomb raider is came out in 1996... it’s not even the 1st tomb raider movie. The fact is, there hasn’t been a good video game movie. If it’s above 13%, I’d consider it in the upper echelon of the genre, that’s how bad they are... just look up the mortal kombat movies 🙈

[nsyprkr]

She only looks masculine. She doesn't look feminine and strong at the same time. Angelina Jolie overcame well at her time.

[weirdoweirdo]

Buddy that Lara is literally from my town well her mother and grandma which still lives here... Although the movie is awful

[monkeynutts]

That's kinda sad, now I won't be disappointed when I watch it.

[TohhhruAi]

Every single fkn movie based on a game is destined to fail

[Coolgirl235]

Lara Croft is the best

[RationalMale]

Depends on which Lara Croft haha

[BeesNectar]

I really enjoyed it!! I want a sequel

[Servus09]

Right on! *High Five*

[TheFlak38]

I liked the movie and want a sequel.

[Anonymous]

Is she a great role model for girls?

[RationalMale]

that's all that matters, right?

[Servus09]

I just want believable female characters. It's not like being a man I can't get excited about a female protagonist.

[Secretgardenblood]

Good take