Esteemed character actor Walton Goggins has rightfully received much praise for his turn as the no-nonsense Ghoul in Prime Video’s Fallout series, based on the immensely popular video game franchise of the same name. However, this wasn’t Goggins’ first time starring in a video game adaptation. Despite not personally being a gamer, Goggins has been attracted to two separate video game-related projects in recent years, with his first being 2018’s Tomb Raider starring Academy Award-winner Alicia Vikander.
Tomb Raider has seen a couple of adaptations since 2018, with Netflix’s animated series, Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft, starring Hayley Atwell, being the most recent rendition of the game being translated to a different medium. Prime Video’s Tomb Raider series from creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge had been in pre-production for some time, with Sophie Turner recently shutting down rumors of its cancellation by showing off her physical transformation for the role.
Distributed by Warner Bros. and taking in a solid $274 million against a $94 million budget, Roar Uthaug’s Tomb Raider took a notably different approach than the early 2000s Angelina Jolie-led adaptations, instead adapting Crystal Dynamics’ newer, grittier Tomb Raider game trilogy for the big screen (although, it should be noted that the third game in the trilogy, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, was still a few months from hitting shelves at the time of the film’s release). The film served as an origin story for the iconic heroine, Lara Croft (Vikander), a novice adventurer who, after discovering the possible location of her missing father, Richard (Dominic West), must go beyond her limits to uncover the truth of her father’s research, while facing off against the underground organization known as Trinity, with a seven-year expedition for the tomb of ancient Japanese queen, Himiko— headed up by the villainous Mathias Vogel (Goggins)— getting in Croft’s way of saving her father and completing his mission.
Walton Goggins Gives Life to a Poorly-Conceived Villain in ‘Tomb Raider’

On the page, the character of Mathias Vogel isn’t exactly the most interesting antagonist. He largely comes off as a cookie-cutter Indiana Jones-esque villain rather than having a defined personality, but Goggins manages to give the character a lot more credibility with his nuanced and menacing portrayal. Vogel is a borderline psychopath with an obsession with uncovering the tomb of Himiko and returning home to his family, and the more time he spends on the island of Yamatai, the more desperate he becomes. Goggins completely sells the character’s anguish, giving an unpredictable layer of menace to an already unsettlling villain; but more than that, Goggins’ performance takes what should be a boring, generic foil for Lara Croft and makes him feel like a real human being, and one the audience can understand despite still rooting against.
Walton Goggins has always been terrific at portraying antagonists whom you can get behind. Whether it be Sheriff Chris Mannix, the main antagonist of Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, or even the smaller, more understated role of Sonny Burch in Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp, Walton Goggins always plays the perfect villain, going above and beyond in each and every role he takes on. Mathias Vogel may not go down as one of Goggins’ best roles, but he gives it his all and makes for a compelling enough foil for our hero.
‘Tomb Raider’ Is a Fun and Spiritually-Faithful Adaptation

Image via Warner Bros.

As for Tomb Raider itself, the film is a lot of fun! Director Roar Uthaug is experienced at delivering compelling survival flicks such as the disaster film The Wave (currently streaming on Max), and he brings that grit and intensity to this more grounded Lara Croft adventure, faithfully adapting the recent Tomb Raider games while still honoring the legacy of the franchise. Alicia Vikander is a terrific Lara Croft, giving her the right mix of vulnerability and capability, selling her arc marvelously while setting Lara Croft up for future adventures, even if those adventures didn’t materialize.
The interplay between Croft and Vogel is a strong point of the film, with Vikander and Goggins having a believable hero-villain dynamic that keeps the film engaging throughout. The climactic raiding of Himiko’s tomb is an exciting mix of Indiana Jones-style traps and tension between our heroes and villains as the two try to outsmart one another, making for a very enjoyable, old-fashioned action-adventure. It’s a shame that we never got to see what came of this franchise, as there was a lot of potential still left to realize.

Tomb Raider

Release Date

March 16, 2018

Runtime

118 minutes

Director

Roar Uthaug

Writers

Geneva Robertson-Dworet, Alastair Siddons, Evan Daugherty