Lara Croft, A Legend Reborn
Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft was aired on the 10th of October 2024 and developed by Crystal Dynamics. The Series follows the more recent Survivor Trilogy from the games they are based on, Tomb Raider 2013, Rise of the Tomb Raider 2015, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider 2018.
Within this series, we see characters from the games as well as returning characters from previous games. Such as Zip one of Lara’s closest allies in the older games. The story follows Lara stricken with grief, haunted by her failure to save Roth. This spirals into Lara auctioning off most of the artifacts in her mansion. However, one artifact is stolen which leads Lara chasing down Chinese Myths and Legends to save the world from falling into imbalance while also trying to find the balance within herself. To let go of her grief and live her life.
My first ever exposure to the Lara Croft series of games was Large Croft Legends on the PSP. It was one of the only games my dad got for the consol when he bought it, so I sat for hours learning how to play the game, find its secrets, and fall in love with the story and characters. This series was the reason my puzzle-solving skills are what they are today.
The story from the series encapsulates so much from the older games that I have missed so much. While watching this with my dad he often looked over seeing me practically giggling to myself. I loved every second of this show and I can understand why certain critics ranked this show so low. It’s an older style of story telling you see very little of nowadays. But that’s why it works so well! Because it’s retro and it’s done right!
Bringing Zip into the fold combined with Jonah was one of the best pairings I have seen for sidekicks in a very long time. This series has so many moments that I can see were plucked straight out of the games and translated to the screen. It was phenomenal! Every single action scene, bar the last battle, made sense. It felt exactly how it would feel if you played the video games.
One of my biggest gripes from Survivor Trilogy was Lara’s Skill level and movement. I understand it was from the perspective of a younger less practiced Lara Croft but watching Lara now? The way she fights, flips around, moves, and grapples it’s all reminiscent of the old games. The perfection that was Lara Croft and her treasure and legend hunting skill. And unlike the games, where you have to learn as you go with languages, Lara gives us everything we need in terms of translations. A much-welcomed change.
My last point, which I will be its own focused review, is Lara’s Mental State throughout the show. Lara is grieving, very heavily mind you. And while grief is often done poorly in shows like these, I feel like this one was actually perfect. Sure, some spots here and there may seem repetitive but that is the nature of grief. The idea is that we may understand the situation but our mind fights against us because our hearts and heads want different things. Lara has grown a lot in this series. Pushing her to grow and let go of her demons. I am so excited to see what season two will do for this series.
This show is phenomenal, and I can’t wait to see more. I highly recommend this for those older fans returning to watch Lara in all her glory, and it’s a perfect point for new fans to see what Prime Lara looked like a few years ago.