I don't like the Jolie Tomb Raider movies. They both suck, IMO.
Vikander's TR was a good movie. I try to separate what I want from Lara Croft in a movie with what we GOT with that version. It was kind of like me seeing a female Nathan Drake flick. I looked at it more like that, and it works great with that mentality.
At the same time, I respect that Jolie's movies at least leaned into the more "physically busty and shamelessly overpowered" element, but I think it was over-the-top in ways that I can't appreciate. It is wayyy too dumb-down and simplistic for me to feel that it was worthy of what I loved about the first few games.
It doesn't even matter that I find Angelina Jolie to be a hideously ugly specimen of human construction (she's hideous)... back when I watched the first movie, I was disappointed that they focused on the wrong - uhm - assets of Lara Croft.
Where the new version of Croft is the antithesis of the first games, Jolie's movies only focused on the most base, simplistic and cliched aspects of her character.
Croft was always interesting to me because she was focused on the ADVENTURE of her quest to find treasure. She used her intelligence and athleticism (as a player) to solve complex puzzles that couldn't just be unlocked with luck. She had smarts. That's how I perceived her in the old games.
Also, she wasn't doing these missions because she was guilty for some past regret, or upset that her daddy did something that she needs to set right. It's about wanting to break the monotony of being rich and irrelevant. She did these quests because she wanted to have FUN. She didn't give a damn about what others thought of her actions, or the political sensitivities of this stuff.
Also, when she was confronted with competitors trying to use her, kill her, and take the prize for themselves... she confidently confronted them and satisfied that aspect of her adventurism as she dispatched them when needed.
But killing wasn't really her thing. It wasn't even so much about "fortune and glory", which I feel the current iterations of her character are saying was one of her "biggest sins" (That, and having big boobs I guess).
Croft was brash, determined, intelligent, beautiful, confident, and adventurous without self-pity, and never ashamed of herself and her actions.
Heck, she was even somewhat selfish, but only due to her confidence and ability to reinforce that by succeeding at what she seeks out to accomplish.
She would face challenges head on, and not worry about "Oh, my dad did something that is now culturally insensitive and I need to make it right."
Nope.
That is not Lara Croft.
I doubt this show is going to find a way to right the wrongs she's been given with the recent imposters in the games and current iterations of this character.
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