Judging from their Rotten Tomatoes scores, no movie based on a video game has been well received by critics. The highest non-animated entry being Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, which stands at 36 percent. But like so many feature films, the poor ratings don't always translate into box office failure.
Two of the most commercially successful titles in the genre are the Tomb Raider movies. The original, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and its sequel, The Cradle of Life, grossed over $431 million combined, so it came as little surprise when a reboot was announced.
Replacing Angelina Jolie in the new movie is Alicia Vikander, whose career took off in 2015 with major roles in Ex Machina and The Danish Girl. Yesterday, Vanity Fair published the first images showing Vikander in the role of Croft.
As you can probably tell from the pictures, this origins story draws inspiration from the 2013 video game reboot of the series, along with its 2015 sequel, Rise of the Tomb Raider. Director Roar Uthaug said "elements of [Rise]" will appear in the movie.
"As an origin story, this movie will introduce Lara as a young woman who hasn't yet found her way and her place in the world; a young woman with great spirit and potential," he said. "We follow her struggles and her journey toward becoming the person she was meant to be and earning the role of 'Tomb Raider,' he told GQ.
The new movie sees Lara traveling to the last known location of her father, who disappeared seven years earlier: a tomb on an island somewhere off the coast of Japan.
Tomb Raider also stars Dominic West, Walton Goggins, and Daniel Wu. We'll have to wait a while before finding out if it breaks the movie-based-on-game curse - it's set for release on March 16, 2018.
