New Tomb Raider Movie Gets First Trailer

I'm gonna be completely honest, I've known a lot of video-game movies have been scheduled to come out in the coming months and years, including a Tetris movie, a new Warcraft film, and a Sonic the Hedgehog movie that's going to make grown men cry for all the wrong reasons, but I've forgotten this was a thing: a brand spanking new Tomb Raider movie.

Lara Croft, the fiercely independent daughter of a missing adventurer, must push herself beyond her limits when she finds herself on the island where her father disappeared.

I shouldn't be surprised: the latest Tomb Raider games have been very cinematic, putting less emphasis on platforming challenges and puzzle-solving and more on raw, visceral combat and brutal survival scenes, making it perfect fodder for today's action-oriented Hollywood. The description of the movie doesn't give it much credit, but for what it's worth, it seems to be a re-telling of the remake's plot with some slight adjustments to make it more palatable for audiences and reducing Laura's unfortunate depictions of "struggling girl just trying to survive." While she's still shipwrecked on a haunted island with armed men out to kill her, it's very much by her own design this go around, and her goals don't revolve around saving her female friend but rather fulfilling her father's last wish that she save the friggin' world.

Laura is played by Alicia Vikander, who has shown up in a few big blockbusters but is perhaps best known for her role in Ex Machina as Ava. Meanwhile, it's being directed by Roar Uthaug, a fellow you've probably never heard of who's behind The Wave, Cold Prey, and Escape. 

Looks promising. If a bit corny. But maybe it'll be the good kind of corny, who knows? The last shot with the two guns sure seems to suggest as much.