Through The Looking Glass

I've been a fan of the franchise since 1999. For the most part, I never found any of the games to be disappointing, including the Legend-Underworld Trilogy and the underrated Angel of Darkness. But due to the failure of honoring Lara's personality and looks, I'm greatly disappointed with the reboot games. To my point, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this movie. Not only this movie derived inspiration from its main source, the 2013 game, but from the entire franchise. Alicia Vikander's Lara, unlike Camilla Luddington's Lara, resembled the classic Lara's personality more. In my opinion, her portrayal of Lara was what the reboot games should've been. And yes, I agree that Angelina Jolie looked more like the classic Lara than Alicia Vikander. But I'm willing to overlook that because of her great acting. Alicia perfectly embodied an inexperienced Lara, yet not extracting her lovable snarky nature, unlike the reboot games. Does the movie have the same plot points as the 2013 game? Yes and No. The movie is like a mixture of various plot points canon in the 2013 game and Rise of the Tomb Raider game. At the same time, it's a story of its own since some plot points run differently from the games. I think that's the center where the criticisms lie. This movie is not an exact copy of the game! I still think it's good nonetheless because it fixes some of the flaws from the reboot games. I know that some will disagree with me on that. Sometimes the pacing of the movie may seem to be quick in comparison to the games. Then again, how much can you really show in 2 hours? From the sources this movie had, I think they did a wonderful job trying to work with what they had in a 2-hour show. I think it's well worth watching!