Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft Review

Since the franchise launched in 1996 tomb Raider The series has seen numerous adaptations over the years, with big screen incarnations led by Angelina Jolie and Alicia Vikander as the iconic video game adventurer. However, it has not received much attention on the small screen until now, with the only exception being the 2007 film. Revised featuring Minnie Driver voicing a role in five to seven minute episodes. Now, fortunately, it's getting its due with Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croftwhich turned out to be an exciting and stylish adaptation, despite some of its shortcomings.

Developed The Witcher: Origin of BloodThe Netflix anime, created by Tasha Huo, is a continuation of Crystal Dynamics' reboot trilogy, which follows Lara finally returning home after abandoning her friends when an adventure leads to the death of someone she cares about. To reunite with her friends and move on from her past, Lara prepares to end everything at Croft Manor, but a cunning thief takes an ancient Chinese artifact that holds a mysterious power. Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft quickly sends her on a race around the world to get him back.

The Legend of Lara Croft Gives her a better adaptation arc.

We finally have a reason to care about Lara

One of the biggest problems faced not only tomb Raider franchise, but many treasure hunting adventures like these have the fact that so much effort has been put into developing the lore and setting for the story that their protagonist gets lost in the mix. Lara Croft is often the unfortunate victim of this genre trend. Jolie tomb Raider the films exemplified the style and over-sexualization of the adventurer, while the Vikander reboot attempted to be more in line with the reboot games' story of her search for her father, but had to be abandoned.

WITH Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara CroftHowever, Ho finally gives us a reason to dig deeper into the story by revealing how the new adventure takes its toll on the main character. Considering the series was a continuation of the game's reboot trilogy, it would have been understandable if the showrunner had simply jumped ahead to when she was an official adventurer, but I appreciate that she was committed to keeping Lara as a young and growing explorer. .

Part of what made the new games so exciting was that Lara was not an infallible figure, but a person who, even with her skills, was capable of making mistakes. This was no more obvious than the way she was portrayed during the tomb robbery, as towards the end Shadow of the Tomb RaiderShe came to understand that some ancient mysteries were better left in their secret homes, rather than brought to light, if the legends about the powers of the artifacts turned out to be true.

Perhaps the best example of this character's work is the parallel. The Legend of Lara Croft between Hayley Atwell's protagonist and Richard Armitage's Charles Deveraux. The villain and Lara are shown as two sides of the same coin, with the latter's growth carrying over nicely into the series as she tries to convince him that revenge isn't worth it since she was subjected to it herself, destroying Trinity behind her. father's death. However, the series makes sure to maintain Lara's empathetic nature as she herself finds herself on the verge of turning to the villain.

Powerhouse animation is perfect for the world of Tomb Raider

The action is quite stylish and the tombs are beautifully rendered.

In addition to Netflix's continued work in the video game adaptation genre following films such as Secret And Cyberpunk: Edge Runners, Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft also sees the streaming platform once again teaming up with Powerhouse Animation to bring the source material to life, and they remain one of the top studios in the genre. Ahead of the new show, Powerhouse introduced both of them to their unique anime style. Castlevania and its sequel Nocturneas well as a Monsterverse spin-off Skull Island and continuation of the Kevin Smith show Masters of the Universe.

For The Legend of Lara CroftThe studio's style really enhances the visceral nature of the series' action, with everything from car chases to battles with supernatural creatures proving to be just as exciting as the games. Powerhouse also does a great job highlighting the magnificence of some of the places Lara visits throughout the series, particularly the first tomb, which feels like it was pulled out of the games not only because of its bright colors and artwork, but also because its vibrant colors and decoration. also for its commitment to the puzzle of the source material.

One of Powerhouse's best animation decisions is the subtly different styles used to depict some of the more supernatural elements of the show. With each combination of powerful relics in the series' history, we see glimpses of a different kind of hand-drawn animation that is entirely reminiscent of ancient Chinese artwork and, as such, matches the cultural aesthetic of the main adventure. While it's unclear if the series will get future seasons, this choice alone makes me intrigued to see how Powerhouse will handle similar nuanced depictions of ancient works of art from other cultures.

The Legend of Lara Croft's Story Still Plays Too Much of a Role in the Franchising Formula

Even with some significant bets this turns out to be predictable

While the animation may be stunning and the character development is better than previous installments, Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft ultimately hampered by the fact that it's too safe for the franchise as a whole, playing to a familiar formula. The introduction of a power-hungry villain does have some impact as we learn more about his sympathetic motives and backstory, as do the seeming deaths of several familiar faces, but as the show progresses and Deveraux's powers grow, it eventually begins to feel distant. too predictable for how Lara will ultimately stop him and save the world.

While the iconic gaming franchise hasn't been able to completely differentiate itself from previous iterations, it's ultimately heartening to see the iconic gaming franchise finally getting a comprehensive adaptation with Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft. There's no denying that it would have been nice to see less adherence to the franchise formula; it could have stayed true to some of the stakes it's set since its first death, but since previous films rarely took Lara's character development into account, there's hope for future adaptations including Phoebe Waller-Bridge tomb Raider The show on Prime Video strikes a similar balance of fresh and familiar storytelling.

Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft istreaming now on Netflix. The series consists of 8 episodes.