Tomb Raider: A Survivor is Born is one of my all time favorite video games and having just recently replayed it I can say it still holds up. The gameplay is fun, the characters are likable, the plot is pretty solid, Lara is such a great character in this game and Sam is still best girl I will hear no arguments to this.
Now I can understand why this would have to be changed when adapting this game into a movie. This is a near 10 hour game that has to be condensed into a, roughly, 2 hour film and there's just no way to do that. Changes have to be made, I get that but the changes they make honestly were stupid and piss me off to no end.
The first major problem with this film is the inclusion or Richard Croft which just highlights that the people who made this film completely missed one of the main points of the game. Rhianna Pratchett had gotten tired of the series being about Lara solving mysteries that revolved around her parents, most notably her father, and wanted to make a story that was about LARA and not involve her dad. She was actually annoyed when Crystal Dynamics basically forced her to make the next game about Richard yet again despite her game being a massive success and proving that the series could work without the need to involve Lara's parents.
So the film injecting Richard into a story that he had nothing to do with just shows the film didn't get what the game was about. Lara went to Yamatai because she wanted to make a name for herself and find the homeland of her best friend/totally her girlfriend's, ancestors. And then this film made it about Richard and Lara just looking for her dad.
And that of course leads to the other issue, the film completely gets ride of Sam because Crystal Dynamics doesn't want Lara to be gay because their a bunch of wimps. So, to solve this they get rid of Lara's best friend and whole motive for doing this whole game and replace her with her dad and some random guy Lara meets in the film. Once again
On top of that the film does this weird thing where it tries to be more of a video game then the video game it's based on with these elaborate traps and puzzles that did not exist in the game. The game was, for the most part, pretty grounded at least as far as games go, and most of the puzzles where something that could exist in real life. But this film we have these elaborate death traps that can only be solved by placing the right stones in the right slots, these spike wall things that look like they were lifted straight out of Prince of Persia and a door that needs to be solve by turning these pillar things to make to open this big door.
Not helping matters is the film straight up rips-off Uncharted instead of sticking to the game it's suppose to be adapting and isn't even subtle about it. Admittedly this does make a more faithful Uncharted adaptation then the actual Uncharted film adaptation we actually got but the problem is this isn't Uncharted it's Tomb Raider, stick to the game you're suppose to be adapting!
So, if I was somehow given the power and the freedom to write this film as I saw fit how would I go about it.
Well, first I would cut out Richard altogether, Bring Back Sam and Roth, Cut out Trinity altogether and keep true to the story of the game this film is suppose to be adapting. But changes do have to be made so what do we keep, what do we change and what do we get rid of altogether?
Well to go to what needs to be kept, this is a story about Lara finding herself and trying to save her friends and family. That can't change so the basic core of the story would remain unaltered, Lara is trying to make a name for herself, she's looking for Yamatai, Sam is chosen by Himiko to be her new host, there is a madman trying to bring Himiko back to life, Lara defeats her enemies, saves her friend but is unable to save everyone as she loses Roth.
We would need to lose most of the cast no matter what, most of them are redundant and add little to nothing to the plot or Lara's character so most of them have to go. This means losing Jonah, Reyes, Grim and Alex, not sure about Whitman he plays a vital role to the story as he's the reason Lara gets captured by the Solarii and how Sam gets recaptured by them later but that can be worked around.
The other thing that has to go is the Storm Guard. In the game the Storm Guard are here to add an extra layer of danger to the island and another enemy for Lara to fight but Himiko's power over the storms and the Solarii are dangerous enough so the Storm Guard would just be redundant and the idea of this ancient witch that can control the weather is more then interesting enough.
Next up is the involvement of Sam and Roth whom I feel NEED to have a bigger role in this hypothetical film compared to the game. Like making it where Roth is straight up Lara's adoptive father after losing her parents and we see him helping Lara a few times and even going off on his own to help out his daughter. Sam should also be given a dose of Adaptational Badass with her helping Lara throughout the film. The first game and the comics is all about these two and their relationship with one another so have Sam and Lara together throughout the film and that would allow Lara to learn about key plot points. And a reason she and Sam are together throughout most of the film is the Solarii aren't sure which of them is the chosen one, sure Lara is clearly of European while Sam is clearly Asian but it could be that the Solarii are just capturing any girl to see if Himiko would take any of them as her vessel.
This gives us a reason to keep Sam and Lara together which would allow the two to play off each other which would allow us to see more of their relationship that was so much fun to see in the comics. This could even give us some much needed levity as Lara and Sam keep going from dangerous situation to dangerous situation all while they play off each other.
Soon enough the Solarii figure out that Sam is the chosen one who will bring Himiko back to life and allow them to leave Yamatai, Sam gets captured and Himiko tries to possess her and we can use elements from the comics like Sam's battle of Wills with Himiko while Lara fights to get to her and the two are able to defeat Himiko.
Sure it would be different from the game but it would capture what made that game work instead of changing it for no real reason.
Thoughts?
