I have to admit first and foremost that I am not a video game playing person. I have no background with Lara Croft or the Tomb Raider games. Nor did I see any of the Tomb Raider movies starring Angelina Jolie. So this is my fist encounter with the world of Tomb Raider and the character of Lara Croft and I definitely enjoyed it. I love seeing a female be a bad*** and Lara Croft definitely fit the bill. Alicia Vikander got ripped for the role and she was amazing.
In this movie we start with seeing Lara struggle - she's broke, working for a bike courier service, and takes on the role of the "fox" in a dangerous bicycle game hoping to win some money. This was a new kind of chase scene in a movie and I loved it! Next, we meet her former guardian Anna, who explains that if Lara would just come in and sign the papers declaring her father dead in absentia, Lara would be a millionaire many times over. Her father left on a quest seven years previously and had never returned, but Lara kept faith that he was alive. Just as she is ready to sign the papers the executor of the estate hands her a puzzle box she was to be given in the event of her father's death. This sparks Lara's own quest to discover what her father had been doing and just exactly what happened to him.
There were a few annoying little things in the movie that irked me and drew me out of the story - her refusal to sign the papers seemed short-sighted to me; if it turns out he is alive that can be reversed, no harm, no foul. When she didn't sign the papers but needed money to go on her quest, she instead sold a priceless heirloom with incredibly sentimental value which drove me nuts - just sign the papers and be a millionaire already! Perhaps it was supposed to be a character strength but it just seemed needlessly stubborn to me. But these were small things and overall didn't really take away from the enjoyment of the movie.
I loved the dozens of scenes where Lara makes incredible jumps, uses considerable strength and agility, and is just all around awesome. She really was the driver of the story and the heroics even though the rest of the movie is pretty much solely populated by men. The story was fun and easy to follow and yet held some surprises as well. All in all, I enjoyed this movie and I need you to go see it so it does well enough they make another one!