Tomb Raider is one of the iconic gaming franchises. No wonder that besides new video games, we regularly get other media starring Lara Croft. In October, the Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft TV show debuted on Netflix. Let’s discuss the series, its cast, pros, and cons.
Tomb Raider from Netflix
Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft premiered on Netflix on October 10, 2024. It was animated by Powerhouse Animation Studios, which previously worked on bringing Castlevania to Netflix. Hence, comparisons and resemblances between those two shows are inevitable. Both series offer similar animation styles. However, Tomb Raider is less violent and doesn’t feature sex scenes. Thus, Netflix tagged it with a 16+ rating, while Castlevania is intended for adult viewers. And this difference is evident, as The Legend of Lara Croft seems to aim at younger audiences than its predecessor.
Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft is set shortly after Tomb Raider (2013). We meet Lara when she is devastated and blames herself for the tragic events on the Yamatai island, particularly the death of her mentor, Conrad Roth. Drowning in guilt, Lara repels her friends and acts impulsively. Finally, she embarks on an adventure that will make her face her inner demons and the danger threatening the world. Like in the Tomb Raider games, her mission takes her to remote countries, including China, France, Turkey, and Mongolia. There are also flashbacks from Yamatai that were necessary for viewers who haven’t played the game.
Despite being based on the latest Tomb Raider trilogy, the Netflix series brings back some stuff from older games. For instance, besides Noah, Abby, and Sam, we meet Zip, a character that was briefly introduced in Tomb Raider Chronicles and played a significant role as Lara’s tech expert in Tomb Raider Legend and Underworld.
Voice Cast
The cast includes some notable names. Foremost, Hayley Atwell is renowned for her role as Peggy Carter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Richard Armitage, who lends his voice to Charles Devereaux, is widely remembered as Thorin from The Hobbit trilogy. The Boys fans know Karen Fukuhara as Kimiko. Ming-Na Wen has had a distinguished career, including roles in ER, Mulan, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and The Book of Boba Fett. The Legend of Lara Croft wasn’t her first video game adaptation, as she portrayed Chun-Li in 1994’s Street Fighter. Also, Nolan North is not a stranger to gaming, as he voiced Nathan Drake in the Uncharted series.
Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft Voice Cast:
- Hayley Atwell as Lara Croft
- Earl Baylon as Jonah Maiava
- Allen Maldonado as Zip
- Richard Armitage as Charles Devereaux
- Zoe Boyle as Camilla Roth
- Roxana Ortega as Abby Ortizand
- Nolan North as Conrad Roth
- Maggie Lowe as Young Lara
- Stan Walker as Leo
- Mara Junot as Joslin Reyes
- Stephen Oyoung as Boat Captain
- Vanessa Marshall as Possessed Henchwoman
- David Chen as Museum Curator
- Keith Ferguson as British Museum Director
- Stephanie Sheh as Biyu
- Ming-Na Wen as Eva Tong
- Karen Fukuhara as Sam Nishimura
Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft Review
Rough Start
The cast does a great job of bringing characters to life. However, if I had to choose one word to describe Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft, I would pick “erratic.” The series combines enjoyable and creative pieces with elements that can easily repel the viewer.
The beginning of the first episode mercilessly tested my strong will and almost made me quit watching. Within a few minutes, Lara sticks her knife into a rock, inexplicably fixes a rope over an enormous abyss, and is bitten on the ankle by a crocodile but runs like an antelope right away. All those scenes show a young and inexperienced girl as an unkillable, unstoppable survival expert, shattering any sense of danger in a series.
Difficult Questions
Fortunately, the show gets better after such a rough start. I particularly appreciate the suggestion that Roth was much more ambiguous than Lara believed. Unfortunately, this season doesn’t traverse this story arc. Nonetheless, it depicts the world in shades of gray rather than simple black and white. Also, the main antagonist is not some all-evil warlord but a more complex character with understandable motives. The series also goes meta and asks questions that modern players can have while playing Tomb Raider games, particularly the older installments. Are tomb raiders necessarily the good guys? Are rich people entitled to travel the world and recover/steal ancient artifacts?
Another intriguing thing is that Lara acts like her early version from the dawn of the franchise for most episodes. She’s a reckless loner who seeks adrenaline and runs into the fire head-first without minding the consequences. The games developed by Core Design were all about cutting-edge gameplay and breathtaking 3D graphics. With all due respect to Vicky Arnold, no one paid attention to the story and character development. However, in the series, such behavior stems from her unprocessed grief.
Too Much Fantasy
On the other scale, we have uneven pacing. Viewers may find it irritating that the series’ composition copies video games. Lara travels to one location, solves puzzles, fights evil guys, retrieves an artifact, and talks with NPCs, who send her to a new location to start the sequence over.
I’m also not a fan of picking a world-saving mission as the premiere adventure in the series. This season, Lara’s character development includes dealing with her past and reconnecting with her friends. A grandiose stake wasn’t necessary to tell a story about fighting her inner demons. It also complicates future seasons. How do you want to raise the bar if you’ve just prevented armageddon? The show captures many of Tomb Raider’s signature elements, such as fighting T-Rex and Lara’s handstand. Unfortunately, I’m afraid it goes too far with supernatural aspects. Of course, they are present in almost all of Croft’s journeys but usually appear in the grand finale. The series shows myths turning true virtually all the time.
As you can see, Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft has some flaws and a lot of room to improve. Even though season one won’t change your life, it can be an enjoyable experience. Especially if you’re a fan of the series, you should appreciate Easter eggs and most likely won’t be bothered by the game-like design.
Second Two
On October 25, 2024, Netflix announced that Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft was renewed for the second season. The new story will most probably revolve around Sam’s disappearance, teased in the final episode of the premiere season. I hope that creators, hearing the feedback from fans and critics, can elevate the show’s quality.
Is Lara Croft Gay in the Netflix Series?
Contrary to many statements you may find on the web, Lara is not involved in a romantic relationship with a woman. Neither with a man, as the Netflix show cultivates the tradition of showing our brave archeologist being too busy for love affairs.
The rumor probably derives from the fact that the Internet loves drama. Therefore, a scene from a trailer featuring Lara and her childhood friend had been misinterpreted, and many people have been blindly using this as the foundation of their negative reviews instead of actually watching the series and straightening this fake story. As you can see in our review, The Legend of Lara Croft is nowhere near perfect, and you can criticize it for various things without using a false narrative.
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