Based on the 2013 video game, and featuring Alicia Vikander as the latest incarnation of a character who’s been around for 22 years, “Tomb Raider” surprisingly plays like a throwback to the classic late-’80s/early ’90s era of action filmmaking, represented by the likes of “Cliffhanger,” “The Last of the Mohicans,” the first couple of Indiana Jones films, and Jackie Chan’s “Armour of God” series. From the animated prologue, wherein the title character’s archeologist father, Lord Richard Croft (Dominic West), tells of an ancient, cursed tomb supposedly containing the all-powerful, weaponizable remains of the Japanese shaman queen Himiko, through its gracefully executed chases and emotional moments, to its finale set on an island riddled with booby-trapped ruins, “Tomb Raider” is better and more original than anyone could have expected.
Although it borrows from the game (and, partially, its sequel) for structure and most of its key action sequences, the movie never feels like a pointless companion piece to a work that was created for a different medium. I’ve never played the game, but I had a great time watching the movie it inspired, thanks ]to the direction; the stunt choreography, which leans on real performers and props whenever it makes sense to; the emphasis on problem-solving one’s way out of tight spots; and most of all, the actors, who flesh out archetypal characters who might have seemed cliched or merely flat on the page, and make them as real as they can, considering what sort of movie they’re in.