Who made the better Tomb Raider: Angelina Jolie or Alicia Vikander?
This year actually marks the 25th anniversary of Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, the 2001 feature film that put the character on the big screen, where she was first embodied by a British-accented Angelina Jolie. The movie was a massive financial success, raking in nearly $300 million worldwide. This made it the biggest-grossing video game adaptation ever made, a position it held for the rest of the decade. It was also Jolie’s biggest movie ever at the time, firmly establishing her as a box office star. Less prestigious was the way the movie pioneered a form of particularly disposable big-ticket entertainment, more temporary arcade distraction than immersive action-adventure. (Now may be a good time to note that I do not play the Tomb Raider games. But I will watch nearly any movie where an adventurer raids a tomb.)
