Though Tomb Raider helped turn Angelina Jolie into an action star, the franchise lay fallow on screen for years while the video games shifted from cartoony dinosaur killing to more serious supernatural horror. So, the Tomb Raider reboot, starring Alicia Vikander, has a lot on its shoulders, and most of that appears to be resting on a new take on Lara Croft.
Mostly the trailer, set to Destiny’s Child and sadly only featuring a little bit of the very-into-it Walton Goggins, is about establishing just how Croft can take such insane amounts of abuse. Turns out this Lara, in addition to being highly educated and very rich, is an MMA fighter who whips around London like a cyclist straight out of the underrated Premium Rush. Hence why somebody as slight as Vikander can bounce off trees before hitting a river, get thrown down mineshafts, dangle off rusted-out airplane wings over waterfalls, and murder henchmen with ice axes.
Interestingly, the trailer doesn’t hint at the supernatural elements that we know are there, namely the vengeful demi-god keeping people trapped until she finds a new body to occupy, something Lara puts a firm end to with a sawed-off shotgun. But hey, they have to save something for the movie.