What’s the raid about Tomb Raider?

A comparison between the 2018 remake of Tomb Raider and the original 2001 film.

WARNING! : THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THIS ARTICLE!!

The 2018 film, Tomb Raider is a remake of the 2001 movie (Laura Croft:Tomb Raider). But as a remake it does have some prequel elements to the film. For example Laura Croft (Alicia Vikander) was younger, less experienced, and her father Lord Richard (Dominic West) was still alive, plus Laura does not receive her two iconic hand guns until the very end of the movie. In the original movie Laura’s parents had both passed, she was older, and by the way Laura trained, you could tell she was more experienced. Plus, from the very opening scene Laura had her two iconic hand guns.

Tomb Raider is definitely more modern and action-packed but the main difference is the slight plot changes. The major point in both movies is that an opportunistic terrorist organization hears a legend of how to receive great power and raids a tomb to gain said power. The difference between the plots is the items these organizations are going after, but the general idea is the same. In both movies Laura Croft has to stop these organizations from finding their treasure in order to save the world from grave danger.

Along the way she gets help from strangers (Lu Ren played by Daniel Wu) and uses various weapons as an advantage, although the weapons she uses are different in the 2018 remake. Laura uses her Dad’s bow and arrow and a stolen climbing axe which are based off of the 2013 video game (Tomb Raider), but in the original she uses weapons based from the 1996 video game (Tomb Raider ft. Laura Croft )– her iconic, dual hand guns. The differences in the two movies continue with how Laura trains. In the modern Tomb Raider, Laura trains in a MMA gym and has previous experience with archery from her childhood, but it’s just a hobby–not specifically for a mission. Her MMA and archery skills help her in the long run though. In the original she uses simulations as a part of her training. She physically trains and prepares herself for missions by fighting off programmed robots that her personal scientist created. Other than some little plot changes, you’re basically watching the same movie modernized for today’s British youth culture.

This movie is highly recommended if you are an action fan, regardless if you have knowledge of the Tomb Raider series. I would not recommend this film for young viewers because of the scenes of slavery, violence, and potentially traumatic events. Shout out to the youngster in the row behind me who asked after a violent scene, ‘is he okay?’ No Virginia, he is not.

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