Has everyone run out of original ideas? Is this what we’ve come to? No offense to the actors and crew of the reboot for Tomb Raider, but come on. Is there a point where people come up with something else or the cow runs out of milk?

First it was a great video game franchise. Guys liked it because it was awesome and she was hot. Girls liked it because you could actually play as a female in a video game. Then Angelina Jolie appeared on movie screens everywhere as Lara Croft in the flesh. She was Lara Croft. She was smart and fierce and sexy, and she went from being labeled a moody, difficult actress to a blockbuster lead who had serious action hero skills.

Watching those Tomb Raider movies now is sort of like looking at pictures of yourself in middle school. A little embarrassing that people went so crazy over them. What were we all thinking? You realize just how far CGI and green screens have come. Whereas before you were thinking wow, how did they do that? Now you’re thinking, I could probably create these effects on my phone, nevermind needing an actual hardcore computer with expensive graphics processors and fancy programs. Come on. That fight with the statues? Ugh.

So I guess that’s why somebody out there decided they needed to make another film, based on two dated films and an animated series that were based on a successful video game franchise (after a hiatus, another will be released toward the end of 2018). Because the technology is better now and they could do it right, I guess. I mean, they rebooted the video game series in 2008, so why not the films too?

Personally, I think they should leave well enough alone. There are the video games, the spin-off games, the novels and comics, and the two original movies. What other stories were there left to tell that you couldn’t create a brand new character for? Why keep trading on the Lara Croft identity and goodwill created by the Tomb Raider name?

I saw the reboot when I had nothing better to do. I thought Alicia Vikander did a good job, but would have been more believable if she had been anyone other than Lara Croft. It was a little farfetched (but so were the others) and there was a lot of nonsense in it (see above). But whatever, it’s an action movie. You don’t watch those for the plot. You watch them for the ass kicking and effects. It had that. It was fine that way, and used the film and technology advances since the original films to its advantage. Looking at it objectively, it set the origin story up a little better and made more sense, in a way. But still, I was bored. I don’t remember being bored with the original series. I don’t know if it was the actors or the plot or what. It was just…boring.

If they had called it something else and given the main character a different name, I think it would have been better received and more people would have liked it – or at least been interested to see it.