By 2015, Tomb Raider games have sold over 63 million copies worldwide (source Wikipedia). Its best-selling release to-date is 2013's tenth edition reboot Tomb Raider game, developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix. The game series has received much critical acclaim being a pioneer of the action-adventure genre with Lara Croft also standing out as a strong female character in a largely male-dominated video gaming market in the 1990's. Although the latter was not without some controversy due to marketing her sex appeal to the male audience as well as improbable human proportions.
Lara Croft has of course evolved with the times so to say. Gaming technology has improved by leaps and bounds over the last 20 years, thereby evolving the world's most famous female cyber celebrity from a pixelated figurine with heightened centre of gravity, to a near human rendering with more realistic anatomy; see below:
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| Evolution of Lara Croft's look in video games since 1996 to 2013. Source: https://ruby290930.deviantart.com/ |
Lara Croft has been missing from the cinemas for 15 years with Tomb Raider The Cradle of Life released in 2003 to box office numbers far below expectation. It also coincided with a poorly received sixth video game instalment titled Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, putting the franchise of hiatus from annual game releases until its tenth anniversary in 2006 with the release of Tomb Raider: Legend.
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| Angelina Jolie's last outing as Lara Croft in Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003) |
BTW, fan girls of Daniel Craig take note he also stars in this movie prior to taking on the mantle of James Bond.
Outpost Intel: This movie is also a great travel commercial for Cambodia where key scenes were filmed in Siem Reap at the UNESCO World Heritage site of Angkor Wat. The Ta Prohm temple serves as a key scene for Lara and now readily accessible to movie fans to explore on their own. However today the temple complex is far from "abandoned" since Cambodia has opened its doors wide to tourists from around the world. Read more about this film site from Beyond the Movies blog and watch the scenes on YouTube. FYI, daily flights are available from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Siem Reap via Air Asia and Malaysia Airlines.
This year, Lara Croft finally returns, not as a Sequel to the prior two movies, but a Prequel. Academy Award winning actress Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl - Oscar winner for Best Supporting Actress, Jason Bourne, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Ex Machina) lands the role of Lara Croft as the young woman presented in 2013's Tomb Raider reboot game. Check out the movie trailer below which incorporates a slower, and dramatic music remix of Destiny’s Child’s "Survivor":
Official movie synopsis for Tomb Raider
Lara Croft is the fiercely independent daughter of an eccentric adventurer who vanished when she was scarcely a teen. Now a young woman of 21 without any real focus or purpose, Lara navigates the chaotic streets of trendy East London as a bike courier, barely making the rent, and takes college courses, rarely making it to class. Determined to forge her own path, she refuses to take the reins of her father’s global empire just as staunchly as she rejects the idea that he’s truly gone. Advised to face the facts and move forward after seven years without him, even Lara can’t understand what drives her to finally solve the puzzle of his mysterious death. Going explicitly against his final wishes, she leaves everything she knows behind in search of her Dad’s last-known destination: a fabled tomb on a mythical island that might be somewhere off the coast of Japan. But her mission will not be an easy one; just reaching the island will be extremely treacherous. Suddenly, the stakes couldn’t be higher for Lara, who - against the odds and armed with only her sharp mind, blind faith and inherently stubborn spirit - must learn to push herself beyond her limits as she journeys into the unknown. If she survives this perilous adventure, it could be the making of her, earning her the name Tomb Raider.
Source: Warner Bros. UK
From Warner Bros. Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, Tomb Raider is the story that will set a young and resolute Lara Croft on a path toward becoming a global hero. The movie is directed by Roar Uthaug (The Wave) and also starring Dominic West (The Wire) as Lara's father Lord Richard Croft, Walton Goggins (The Shield) as apparent villain Mathias Vogel, Daniel Wu (Warcraft, Into the Badlands, Gen-X Cops) as potential "sidekick" Lu Ren, and Kristin Scott Thomas (The English Patient) as Ana Miller.
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| Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft (right) finds an ally in Lu Ren played by Daniel Wu. Source: IMDB.com |
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| Walther Goggins as Mathias Vogel (right) seems to be doing the tomb raiding instead... for the time being. Source: IMDB.com |
Listen to Alicia Vikander on "Becoming Lara Croft". Looking real fierce, girl!
Indeed the Swedish actress went through intense physical training over four months before shooting to get into the role of Lara Croft. Prior to Tomb Raider, Vikander had "never done action scenes on this level" as quoted in an interview by Elle.com. She shared that the training intensity felt like going back to dancing, having to be very aware of movements for wire-work. "I've never been able to lift my own weight, and the day when you have that capacity, it's pretty empowering!" she added. Vikander certain looks to be doing many stunts herself, impressing her male co-stars Dominic West, Walter Goggins and Daniel Wu. A star of many Hong Kong action flicks and more recently as Sunny AMC's Into the Badlands mini-series, Wu described Vikander as a "beast" when it comes to the movie action and as a first-time action star has "taken the bull by the horns". Read more about Daniel Wu from his recent interview with Star2.com where his shares on his acting career, experience with Tomb Raider and his First Love.
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| Speaking of Daniel Wu, he's a pretty famous face around Asia and so warrants his own movie poster here. |
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| Alicia Vikander in the forthcoming movie very much resembles Lara Croft as seen in the 2013 Tomb Raider game (above), sans "pointy breasts". Source: Art by Brenoch Adams from www.videogamesartwork.com |
UPDATE 14 MARCH 2018: Here are movie reviews by Star2.com and Hype.my plus podcast by BFM's At The Movies.
Follow the latest updates on the official Tomb Raider - 2018 Facebook Page, Tomb Raider movie on Facebook, @TombRaiderMovie on Twitter and Instagram, and locally via Warner Bros. Pictures Malaysia Facebook Page.
As a tribute to the Tomb Raider franchise celebrating the return of Lara Croft to cinemas, Outpost Productions will be posting daily cosplay photos inspired from the upcoming movie via our social media channels:
- Follow us on Instagram @OutpostMY.
- Like us on Facebook as Outpost Productions.
Many thanks to cosplayer Micho the Haram-bae and photographer Limelight Fotography for their time and effort on this photo shoot in the real Malaysian tropical forest.
We also shot a new Cosplay Fight Club fan video where we paired up characters from geek pop cultures in unlikely match-ups never likely to happen in the complicated world of Intellectual Properties rights and so forth. So here's our face-off video of Lara Croft versus Indiana Jones:
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| GSC looks to be giving away tomb raided loot. |
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| Movie premiums to be won from Premium-X cinemas. |
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| If Ken gets out of line, Lara will put him in his place! |
Tomb Raider runs 122 minutes and releases in Malaysia on 8 March with sneak previews starting 7 March night at selected cinemas.
Disclaimer: Tomb Raider, Lara Croft and other trademarks are copyright to Crystal Dynamics, Square Enix and/or Warner Bros. Pictures, and their respective owners, referenced here for fan service announcements only without intent to infringe.
