Tomb Raider (2018)
DIRECTOR: Roar Uthaug
CAST: Alicia Vikander, Dominic West, Walton Goggins, Daniel Wu, Kristin Scott-Thomas, Derek Jacobi
REVIEW:
Hollywood has long had a hard time adapting video games to films in ways that make them equally engaging and cinematically satisfying, and while Tomb Raider (an adaptation of the long-running video game series, and a film reboot unconnected to the two past Angelina Jolie films) is more competent than Assassin’s Creed (no great high bar to hurdle), it only provides more ammunition for the argument that a video game is an inherently more interactive and engaging experience than a film based on it can be. Tomb Raider might be the most faithful game-to-film adaptation yet, but reducing the interactivity of the game to the passivity of watching a preordained movie inherently removes a critical element. Tomb Raider is an adequate diversion, but there’s something Point A to Point B about its generic and non-innovative narrative that dilutes the excitement. Continue reading
Assassin’s Creed (2016)
DIRECTOR: Justin Kurzel
CAST: Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Irons, Michael K. Williams, Brendan Gleeson, Charlotte Rampling
REVIEW:
For whatever reason, Hollywood has had a hard time coming up with a successful video game-to-film adaptation, and unfortunately Assassin’s Creed does not buck the trend. An obtuse, poorly-edited mishmash of generic action sequences, narrative incoherence, and pseudo-scientific/historical mumbo jumbo that sounds like it’s out of a second-rate Dan Brown novel, one senses the movie would be direct-to-video fare without the presence of a couple of top-flight actors and a hefty budget, and frankly that’s where the quality level lies. Continue reading