 What's up nerds? I'm Ben, I'm Julia, aka Lara Croft, aka Jim Cosplay, and we just saw Tomb Raider. What do we think? You're about to find out. Do you think? So Tomb Raider picks up with a young Lara Croft saying goodbye to her father who mysteriously goes missing, presumed dead. We pick up the story years later. Lara's a young, rambunctious young woman still holding on to that memory of her father, and little does she know she's going to be sucked back into that mystery of what happened to her father. She's going to go on all sorts of wacky adventures, and this is an origin story of how Lara Croft came to be Lara Croft. Again, because as we all know, this story happened many years ago with the first Tomb Raider, but I'm keen to know today, not only, Jules, do you think this is good, but do you think this lives up to the video game series that this is based on? Going in, I was definitely sceptic of this movie being such a hardcore Lara Croft fan. I was actually surprised. It did have very memorable moments that we've seen in the more recent games, but did pay homage to the old Tomb Raider games and movies as well. So I'm actually coming at this from just a pure movie fan basis, and I just wanted a good time with this movie. I was like, like you, I was a little bit skeptical, but I thought maybe this can just have a few cool action sequences. Alicia Buchanan is a good actress, so let's talk about that straight up for that. Is Alicia Buchanan better than Angelina Jolie in this role? I think they're playing two very different roles. Alicia definitely had that naivety to her, and you saw her character develop and grow, and she did that really well. While with Angelina Jolie's character, it's Angelina Jolie. She just comes on the screen, you're like, oh my god, at least I am. Yeah, I think she brings sass to it, but not the same kind of sass that Jolie did. I think if you look at it now, Jolie is just, like she's kind of overacting a little bit, and it's a little bit almost cartoonish in the way that she played the role. But at the time, that was kind of like this, that was pre superhero movie kind of era, so it was fine. Now you can't really do that now. So the candid brings like a grittiness to it, and god that word doesn't get used a lot with these modern day superhero movies. Yeah, but yeah, there's definitely grittiness to it, don't you think? Definitely. And they try really hard to like set up Lara as this, you know, she starts out, she's like a, I guess you'd call it like a... Courier? Yeah, like a bike courier. And she's doing all this, you know, cap-aware stuff and you're like, this is where this is leading, right? They're trying to set her up. She has the skills, she just doesn't know how to use them yet. And that was believable. But what isn't believable in this movie, in my opinion, is some of the dialogue. Now I just thought it was a bit clunky and cliche. What do you think? It was very forced at times and it just felt like it dragged, but just that couple of sentences too long and you're like, all right, you didn't have to say, I'll wait for you. You could have just gone. That happens a lot, you know, in these Hollywood movies. It's like, in this film in particular, I kept thinking, this film is at its strongest when characters aren't talking. Like I was enjoying it the most when it was just pure action and no one was actually speaking. So I think we should talk about the action set pieces because I think that's the highlight of the film. What did you think? I was really worried after seeing the trailer that it was going to be really heavily CGI'd and that that would spoil a lot of the movie. I didn't notice it that much. So apart from the plane scene, which everyone's seeing because it's in the trailer, I didn't notice it. I actually enjoyed it. I was able to enjoy the moment in which the characters were in. Yeah, surprisingly, I know they rushed these films out so quickly. Sometimes the CG can look fake, but I think for the most part it was believable. And I was actually, you know, there was times when I was kind of gripping my seat, like there's actually some quite tense moments in this. Unfortunately, some of them are quite derivative. You know, Indiana Jones is obviously some of the springs to mind. There's moments that remind me of Jurassic Park and she seems to be hanging off objects quite a bit. I want that girl's arm strength. Yeah. I tell you, I don't know how she does it. She seems to be quite relaxed when she's hanging off a cliff. But yeah, I do think they're well handled. And I think I do think that's the highlight of the film for me. So one of the favorite things for me was definitely that arc and her character growth through it. So when you see her at that innocence and her getting surprised, especially with the side of death or the pain, that real world pain aspect, and one of the memorable moments definitely was her first kill. And that scene definitely wasn't played out and you were shocked with her and you felt that, oh my god, is she going to throw up now because I feel like I am. There was a grittiness to it. Yeah, the audience, you kind of feel that as an audience member. You do feel the weight of that first kill. So that was a genuine surprise, I think. So I think we should talk about the rest of the cast. Do you think there's any highlights here? You've got Daniel Wu's, her off-sider, not romantic interests because it's you know, it's 2018 and just because it's a guy and a girl doesn't mean they need to hook up. But he's just kind of there, isn't he? Yeah, he just kind of runs the subplot almost, but he did well. He did a good drunk. Yeah, he played a good drunk and then he kind of just like vanishes as the film goes on. I'm sure there's some deluded scenes there. You've got Dominic West, otherwise known as McNulty from the Wire, playing Lara Cross's father. He's quite stoic and very Dominic Westy. Yeah, I just think he's now become one of those actors where he's almost started just to play the same character over and over again regardless of the role. Yeah, and then you've got the baddie, Walton Goggins, who likes playing a somewhat shady character. The man with the ever-receding hairline. Yeah, but that hasn't changed in a couple of years now. Yeah, he's good though. He did play a good bad guy. He did have that menacing and that kind of almost twisted. Yeah, so this guy's a little bit unhinged. She's been on this island for seven years. He's every day is just completely obsessed with just finding this treasure and Lara comes into his world and she's the key to finding this treasure and him getting off the freaking island. It's all he really cares about. That's his motivation. Yeah. So I think apart from Alicia Vikander, he's probably the other pilot for me, but it's not the kind of movie where you come out of it and you go like, oh, an amazing ensemble cast. It's just, whoa, that's not what you're going to be saying after you see this film. I think what you're going to be saying after it is just I'm happy. So that's pretty much all we have to say about Tomb Raider. I think we should tell you guys, whether it's worth checking out, do you think if you're a gamer, like a hardcore Tomb Raider gamer, you'll be, you'll want to go check this out. I'd still recommend it, but you're going to pick it apart. I definitely think if you're more of a movie fan, it's definitely a good origin piece for you. So you think it's going to not actually impress the gamers, the people that have followed this series from the start are going to be disappointed with this? I won't say disappointed. I'll just say probably won't live up to their expectations. Okay. So do you think this is an improvement on the Angelina Jolie film? I'd definitely say it's an improvement. Okay. So the 2018 version of Tomb Raider is the best video game film of all time, according to this woman right here. You heard it here first. So that pretty much sums it up for us. I'm Ben. I'm Julia. And where can we find you on the internet, Julia? Instagram on Gemcosplay, us, underscores between those words. We'll put the link down below, so come follow me. I'm entertaining and fun. Awesome. Until next time, we'll see you nerds at the movies.