Lara Croft Tomb Raider - 4K Blu-ray Review

Movie
Yup, with the reboot of Tomb Raider (starring Alicia Vikander) coming up real soon, you could almost be assured that Paramount was going to pull off their dusty early 2000 era takes on the Tomb Raider video games series and put them out on 4K UHD. I’ve always been a fan of video game movies growing up, but am also one who has to come to grips with the fact that most video game adaptations are just NOT that good. They’re cheesy, schlocky, lack most of the original depth that the series has created over many years of storytelling, and usually they’re not treated with much respect. The flip side of the coin is that they’re usually just big, dumb popcorn films that you really shouldn’t read too much into. I love the Resident Evil series of films quite a bit (although they got really stale near the end), still watch Van Damme’s Street Fighter a bit more often than my wife would like me too. Lara Croft Tomb Raider was one of the first ones that tried to make video game adaptations more seriously, infusing the high flying action of the adventure game, with a SEMBLANCE of story (even if only so sleight), and was banking on the success of a young Angelina Jolie in the prime of her career to make it successful.

Lady Lara Croft (Angelina Jolie) is the titular female tomb raider, who travels around the globe in search of artifacts. It also helps that she’s a trained martial artist, a firearms expert, and basically your all around rich ninja with unlimited resources, ala Batman. Except instead of trying to save the world, she’s trying to wash the pain of her father’s disappearance as a young girl, and doing her best to figure out what happened to him. When the may 15th alignment of the planets opens up a mysterious clock in her father’s old artifacts, she finds an ancient key that will start to bring her down a path that may lead her straight to him.

Like with all these older “mystery “films, the plot revolves around the Illuminati (yes, that all powerful, but never found organization that supposedly control s much of the world). Lord Manfred Powell (Iain Glen, before moving over to Resident Evil) is also on the track of a mysterious pyramid that can control time, and it seems that Lara’s key is the...well...key to his mission as well. Teaming up with him, and an old boy toy named Alex West (Daniel Craig) who is hiring himself out for the biggest buck, Lara intends to track down the pyramid and stop the Illuminati from their dastardly plan (all while looking hot as a tamale while doing so).

Lara Croft Tomb Raider is pure and utter drek in reality, but I still have a good time watching it. The movie’s zany plot hinges entirely on the late 90s obsession with the Illuminati behind every bush (which feels a bit quaint in modern times), and is filled with cheap CGI action sequences, over the top stunts with Angelina Jolie pursing those lips of hers sexily, while shooting bad guys with precision shots under motion. Sadly, very little of it has anything to do with the games other than the famous Lara Croft outfit that Angelina wears while diving into caves and tombs. Much of the adventure and fun of the games is completely absent, with nothing but a veneer of the old game left behind.

About the only thing that the movie did right was catch Angelina in the role of Lara. She’s a solid casting choice, despite those puffy lips, and was a STUNNING beauty back then (before she went all anorexic on us). She pulled off the action stunts with adept ease, and her Chemistry with a baby faced Daniel Craig is easily believable (although amusing to see American actress Angelina play a Brit, while British actor Daniel Craig puts on the American accent). It doesn’t hurt the fact that Iain Glen is able to pull off the deliciously creepy and melodramatic roles so well (much like he does in the Resident Evil series) and Angelina Jolie’s father, Jon Voight, ends up playing Lara’s father as well (even though he’s nothing but a glorified cameo).




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for action violence and some sensuality




4K Video: Video:

Interestingly enough, with this re-release from paramount, the Blu-ray is NOT given the shaft like so many re-releases. The Blu-ray was notoriously bad, video wise, and the weak master was put on a single BD-25 with Mpeg2 compression. However, Since Paramount is not only releasing the 4K UHD disc in time for the new reboot, but also the Blu-ray release itself and they’ve given it a bit of a makeover. The Mpeg2 compression is gone and re-encoded in the modern AVC codec. There are slight differences here and there, and overall it’s a nice upgrade from the abysmal first release, so those of you who don’t have 4K UHD equipment just yet can rejoice that the Blu-ray is getting na boost to tide you over.


Now, on to the 4K UHD disc. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider hasn’t been advertised as having been given a new master, so I’m ASSUMING that this is still using the older master that was used for the old Blu-ray, and I’m pretty sure that is the case as the coloring and small aliasing issues that was present then are still present now. There’s some mild aliasing around people’s faces, as well as a slightly flat and grey look that just feels a bit ‘dated’, if you know what I mean. That being said, this is a very VERY solid improvement over even the newer Blu-ray, and the leap in clarity and lack of digital noise is VERY obvious. The battle inside Croft manor with Lara on the motorcycle was riddled with noise on the 1080p disc, but the 4K UHD is much cleaner and shows more noticeable textures along the stone walls. The glowing orange, green and red colors of the underground tomb scenarios pop brighter than before with the HDR 10 tweaks, and skin tones look less pale and more ruddy and amber in color. Overall detail isn’t a huge leap forward, but still easily recognizable when played next to each other, with skin pores and stone walls showing little nooks and crannies that just weren’t visible in the previous incarnation of the films. Spotty CGI can be visibly distracting, but that’s just something the movie has to come to grips with, as it wasn’t known for it’s amazing CGI even back in 2001. Overall, a nice upgrade to what we had before.





Audio:

Just like the video, Paramount has given the audio a kick in the pants as well. The original U.S.A. release of Tomb Raider was not exactly a stellar release, with weak video and an unforgivable 640 kbps Dolby Digital track that was VERY VERY anemic. With the re-release of the film both the Blu-ray and the 4K get a boost to full on 5.1 DTS-HD MA. Yes, I know it’s not Atmos, but this is not a film that I’m willing to get my undies in a bunch over. The increase in fidelity and ambiance is quite substantial, as I LOATHED the Dolby Digital track of the day and bought the German Concorde Blu-ray double feature just so I could get a 5.1 DTS-HD MA track (albeit with the frustration of some subtitle issues). This one is a nice improvement, but still won’t be a track that will shock and awe the audience. Dialog is crisp and well defined, while the surrounds get a good workout with all of the action. My real complaint stems from the fact that the track is just a bit anemic in the low end, with a very subtle base line that doesn’t feel at home in such an action packed movie. It leaves the track feeling just a bit thinner than it should be.






Extras:

• Commentary with Director Simon West
• Digging Into Tomb Raider
• Crafting Lara Croft
• The Visual Effects of Tomb Raider
• Tomb Raider Stunts
• Are You Game?
• Deleted Scenes
• U2 Music Video: "Elevation" (Tomb Raider Mix)
• Alternate Main Title
• Teaser Trailer
• Trailer













Lara Croft: Tomb Raider has DEFINITELY aged a bit since I saw it last. I used to love the film a lot as a young adult, but as I’ve gotten older I have to come to grips with the fact that it was just a mediocre early 2000s video game movie. Now, as a whole, it’s MUCH better of a video game movie than others have been, but still. It is what it is. A fun popcorn film that really shouldn’t be taken too seriously if you want to keep your sanity. The 4K UHD disc is a nice upgrade from the problematic Blu-ray (with a new Blu-ray for those of you who don’t have 4K equipment just yet). Extras are identical to the original release though (and except for the Simon West director’s commentary are all housed on the Blu-ray), but the audio and video make it a worthy upgrade for fans of the film. Fun Watch is my recommendation.






Technical Specifications:

Starring: Angelina Jolie, Daniel Craig, Jon Voight, Iain Glen
Directed by: Simon West
Written by: Simon West, Sara B. Cooper, Mike Werb
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, French Canadian, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian DD 5.1
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Cantonese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Mandarin (Simplified), Norwegian, Russian, Swedish
Studio: Paramount
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 100 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: February 27th, 2018