Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001 film) = Finished

This movie chosen by a "Fennelsher" patron. 

Okay, I don't wish to alarm anyone, but...this movie is good?

It's good???

In fact, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was so effective, that it made me reconsider the way I saw the entire franchise.

Alice Bell of Rock Paper Shotgun said something very insightful in her review of Gris. That women in our games come in three flavors: "Feisty, overtly sexual, and traumatised." This came to mind quite quickly in the opening moments of the movie. As it swung from over-the-top stylized violence (against a giant robot), to a gratuitously sensual shower scene that doesn't show anything below the shoulder (keeping the PG-13 barrier well-intact), I questioned who this movie was for.

See, Tomb Raider is just defiant enough to set ajar the many cliches it tries to wear, from its stock range of sidekicks, to a time-travelling mystery with booby traps and coincidence galore. Just when I thought it had leaned entirely into becoming a corporate, by-the-numbers action tie-in, I got another outrageous costume change, or a high-flying bungee fight that lasts for ten solid minutes before Lara makes her way to the garage and begins murdering scared soldiers with improvised weapons. Daniel Craig actually presents far more skin in his shower scene than Lara does. The sequence goes on for a long time, too! A naked guy having normal conversations, convenient camera angles barely hiding the naughty bits. I've seen this exact situation played for laughs before, but it's played too straight here to write off as a simple joke.

It borders on bisexual.

This movie is weird. Not just because of its unsettling balance between calculated inoffensiveness and subversive hijinks, but because it is so clear that this movie is having FUN with itself. This movie doesn't have to exist, but it does anyway because some boardroom filled with people thought that be a good idea. So, Tomb Raider is going to live its strange life with far more flair than even fits within its confines. When Lara escapes the final deathtrap, leading a dog-sledding team by herself, careening at 90 degrees on the icy walls of her escape route, and she smiles--it feels genuine.

It reflects the weird character of Lara herself.

Croft is vulnerable at some times, unflappable at others--and always cool. That's the important bit. She's damn good at what she does, and so she has fun with it while remaining human. Relatable despite being obnoxiously rich, Croft uses her wealth for adventures instead of the stock market. Her butler brings her guns on a silver platter.

It's amazing.

There was a lot of talk about redeeming the character of Lara Croft when the reboot came around in 2013. This isn't a great film--it's very much a shlocky, big-budget take on an Indiana Jones movie, with slightly more sauntering. But, it did change my mind about whether Lara Croft needed to be redeemed at all.
It wasn't the essence of her character that was at fault--it was us.

Our marketing, our need to increase her bust size against all objections of gravity and physics, our objectifying camera angles of a character that, outside of her presentation, was whole and confident and empowering. In modern incarnations, Lara is undeniably traumatized. Here, she's fun. She's a full person. 

I appreciate Lara Croft.