Tomb Raider: La leyenda de Lara Croft

My main problem with serials, especially in the Netflix era, is season decline: all too often, the first episode of a new series is enticing, but everything only keeps getting worse as episodes pile up. Netflix's Tomb Raider must on that account be praised: I have seen but one episode, and yet I trust entirely that it is representative of the rest of the season.

Mostly, this is because it could hardly get worse: utterly generic plot, a reheated cast of flavourless characters, embarrassingly cheesy dialogues repeatedly missing the target, cookie-cutter art and stilted budget animation, this feels subpar on virtually every level (except perhaps the sound, which is average and yet stand out from the mediocrity of just about everything else.) I suppose this is in keeping with much video-games based film and animation: fast & cheap content snidely hoping to capitalize on an existing and dedicated fan-base. But Crystal Dynamics put quite a lot of effort in their reboot, trying to build an endearing and credible character, evolving along with gritty if spectacular plots. How, then, they agreed to license their character for this trite embarrassment beggars belief, as neither in tone nor in plot does it fits with their franchise.

It seemed so weird that they decided to use a kids show animation house for something that should be R rated. Considering the games rating why would you be promoting the survivor trilogy to kids. If that wasn't the intention then the art style does not match. I was real excited to see the continuation but from the first episode there are plot holes. Like she is shocked to had to fight like it was the first time she has in her life. Considering it's a continuation and not a reboot we all know she's seen a lot worse. Also was disappointed the voice of Lara was not the same as in the game but Jonah was the same. I really wish they used the game engine that they already had. It would have been great with the art style of the games.

That's probably not a surprise for anyone who's played the more recent Tomb Raider reboot games. But I was hopeful we'd see a development in her character towards the independent, bad-ass thrill seeker she used to be in her previous iterations.

Not so. Instead, she retreads the same emotional beats she does in the game. And in some ways, even worse. She feels frumpy, downtrodden and guilt ridden. The fun, confident and witty Lara, who was so impeccably brought to life by Angelina Jolie is completely gone.

She's replaced by this sad sack, weepy, girl-next-door who just needs her friends to hug and support her.

On the plus side, the 2d animation and its integration into the 3d elements is very well done. The action scenes and their direction are fun and kinetic and feel like Lara Croft. The background and environments also look really good with lots of attention to detail. You can't fault the animators on this one. It's the writers who let Lara Croft down.

Not much to say really. Why can't they make it based on the real Lara Croft and not the nerfed, new one? The could have atleast used Keely Hawes to do the voice? She has none of the mannerisms of Lara and doesn't even look like her. And now the black guy is gay for some reason.

Im as bored as hearing about Laura's parents now as I am of Bruce Wayne's. I don't care about that story that was made up after the OG lara.

The story is quite predictable and we've already seen it a ton of times. Give us something new, as in new, back to the original but with a new adventure.

Backgrounds look nicely drawn though, so props to the artists.

Lara croft is a legendary franchise, from the jagged edged video games to the modern movies, she has become an iconic character.

This TV show fails to capture almost any element that makes the character what it is. Lara croft in this show might as well be super human, to the point where even people who play the video games will be forced chuckle. The script is hilariously bad, with plot holes making you question everything from the very first episode and that could have easily been remedied with a little bit of attention.

To make matters worse the unrealistic dialogues land on your ears like screeching chalk on a board. This is not how normal people communicate.. I refuse to believe the voice actors are this bad, therefore I can only blame the direction that they were given by the production team.

The animation is fine, nothing ground breaking like Foghill of the five elements or the Blue Eye Samurai, but it does not drag the show backwards like all the other elements do. So the show deserves some praise for that. However it cannot save the overall product from being bad.

Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara is just a poor attempt at reinventing a legendary character.