Tomb Raider Ascension

After having watched two Tomb Raider films, I realized there was still one left and despite the low rating in the IMDb I decided to give it a try. So I was not surprised to see how bad it would be. Actually, I stopped in the first 2 minutes and quickly skimmed through the rest. So my review shall lack in its entirety but still here it goes.

The actress plays Lara in too different style from our stereotypical image of Lara Croft. I know the story is about Lara's youth and how she grew up to be a tomb raider and all that kind of stuff, but she looks like a typical teenager bored of anything around and consumed with TV games. Does that make Lara Croft familiar to you? Maybe, but certainly to me who was imagining her spending more adventurous life style, it spoiled her image badly. She hardly looks active.

Secondly, the camera-work is too unstable, just like an amateur documentary film. Suddenly it zooms up and down, moves left to right, and that doesn't help it look like an action film at all. This is exacerbated by small voices (or improper level of voice capture) which is again highly inappropriate for action films. I guess this was intended to make the film realistic but due to the shortage of action scenes such effect is adding more home-documentary touch instead.

Thirdly, the characters are not acting enough, or lack training in specific actions. For example, Lara doesn't look very confident in handling tools and guns. In one scene I saw her fighting with a big bloke without guns but both acting looked like cheap shots. To put it another way, their actions look somewhat too slow for action film, they would probably look good for comedy though.

In summary, I found this "action" film rather documentary with amateurish touch. For some people it might work, so I give 3 stars overall. Anyone interested should really check the trailer first and think if you still want to watch it.