The previous Lara Croft was perfectly expressed by casting Angelina Jolie for the Tomb Raider movies. Larger than life, iconic, aglow with celebrity, handy with pistols, plastically unreal.
The new Lara Croft is none of those thing. This Lara Croft is small and girlish, with a pony tail instead of the previous tightly practical braid. She looks more likely to raid a library than a tomb (she even claims to hate tombs at one point). She’s smart and competent, but aware of her limitations. She expresses self-doubt, grief, confusion, anguish, and pain. She runs out of breath. She is not a superman. She is cold, wet, dirty, and sometimes wounded. Indiana Jones might get his knuckles scraped up before the scene is over, but he — and Nathan Drake, by the way — is defined by swagger and confidence. He has no self-doubt, only the grim resignation and acceptance that befits a stoically invulnerable character. See also, pre-Skyfall James Bond.
So if this Tomb Raider reboot were made into a movie, the new Lara Croft wouldn’t just be someone famous. She certainly wouldn’t be just another model. She would have to express something new for the series and it seems to me Crystal Dynamics had someone in mind.
After the jump, is it as obvious to you as it is to me?
Anna Kendrick exudes intelligence and competence, but she’s also got a sense of vulnerability and girlishness that isn’t just the usual ingenue-ity. And I can’t imagine that the artists at Crystal Dynamics aren’t aware of the visual similarities.
It’s not just me, right?
Tomorrow: real horror show
Click here for the previous Tomb Raider entry.