After Angelina Jolie’s seductive portrayal of the character in the early 2000s, Lara Croft, the character, has undergone a few changes. The franchise reboot in 2013 introduced the world to a new Lara who is still learning the ropes, and focused more on the character’s personal development than letting players have a fun romp as a sexy gunslinger with a penchant for acrobatics. In keeping with the times, the movie franchise has also got a fresh start, with Alicia Vikander picking up a bow and learning to use a pickaxe in the new adaptation currently in theatres.
The movie has received relatively positive reviews from critics, and if Rotten Tomatoes ratings are any indication, a lukewarm response from audiences, which is actually a decent performance, considering how venturing into the realm of video-game adaptation requires almost as much courage as foraying into a hostile island in the middle of nowhere.
Hollywood has successfully adapted from other media, with movies based on books often doing well. The Lord of the Rings being one of the examples where a movie recreated the source material near perfectly (and then descended into a painful cash grab with three films based on The Hobbit ). Even the Harry Potter franchise, despite a few missteps, was largely met with critical and commercial success. Which is probably why it is trying to outdo The Lord of the Rings for who can make the longest series based off of the least source material.
Not that video game adaptations have not been tried. The medium just does not lend itself to big screen versions as easily. Directors like Uwe Boll ( House of the Dead , BloodRayne , Far Cry ) and Paul WS Anderson ( Mortal Kombat , Resident Evil , an upcoming Monster Hunter film) have tried their hand at multiple adaptations, with often disastrous critical response in the case of the former — online petitions were put up asking him to retire — and some success in the case of the latter, particularly with the first Mortal Kombat film and the Resident Evil franchise.
It’s the little things
In the larger scheme of things, the films have struggled to make a mark, and the reasons for some are easy to pinpoint, while in other cases, not so much. Most films struggle to capture the tone of a game, the little things that make fans remember it long after the campaign ends. Assassin’s Creed , which starred Vikander’s husband Michael Fassbender, focused more on the human intrigue behind the epic story of tapping into one’s ancestor’s memories, and completely overlooked the charm of the games, which allowed one to walk through the streets of Florence and the bazaars of Istanbul. Two adaptations of the classic stealth franchise Hitman , turned what could have been a tense suspense thriller into a collection of shootouts, with the cursory nod to scenes or locations from the games thrown in.
assassin creed
In a recent interview with The Hindu , Resident Evil director Anderson spoke about the unenviable task of trying to please either hardcore fans or mainstream audiences, at the risk of alienating the other, saying he preferred to combine elements of multiple games in a franchise to tell a compelling story. This was achieved to some extent in the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010) film. However, for a film that was titled after the first instalment of a three-part franchise, it combined many different elements from the games, telling a complete tale that ended up feeling like a run-of-the-mill fantasy blockbuster. The film left the explorations of the psychological and physical ramifications of the adventure on the protagonist’s psyche (which was touched upon in the second game, Warrior Within ) to the realm of online discussion boards and fan-fiction websites.
Formula gone awry
The trouble is with Hollywood formula. When a game has a plot that fits the conventional film tropes, the adaptation manages to stay close to the material, like in the case of Max Payne , which tells the story of a cop who lost his family on a mission for revenge.
By that logic, the 2014 film Need For Speed , starring Aaron Paul, should have blown audiences away as well, since the games themselves have a minimal plot and a lot of flashy cars. Perhaps, there is only so much room for that plot device in people’s hearts, and all the available space was occupied by Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson’s brawny biceps.
The release of Tomb Raider shows that Hollywood is not done trying to achieve success in video game land. Barring a change in approach, this seems far-fetched, but all hope is not lost yet.
With digital streaming services increasingly becoming the preferred platform for complex storytelling, some activity has begun there. With The Witcher , one of gaming’s most critically acclaimed and nuanced titles, getting a Netflix adaptation, there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon.
