- Title: Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft – A Single Step
- IMDb: link
A mopey Lara Croft (Hayley Atwell) isn’t exciting and we get far too much of that version of the character in the opening episode of Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft. We start we an adventure in the jungle and the recovery of an artifact with Roth (Nolan North). However we quickly jump years ahead to a self-destructive Lara ostracized from her friends for vaguely described events which she also blames herself for Roth’s death. Returning home for some spring cleaning, Lara decides to hold an auction giving away much of the Croft trinkets and treasures only for a thief to steal one, that box she and Roth acquired in the opening scenes, from the mansion.
Can you imagine having to play these levels in a game? That moping around the house level? The auction level? Yeah, that sounds pretty fucking awful. Lara is a character than needs to doing something, preferably solving a puzzle, exploring, or running for her life. While you can interject moments of drama and introspection into those scenes, attempting to replace those scenes with a broken Lara is a baffling decision. As for the character we came to see, we get that only in the scenes that bookend the episode starting with the flashback and ending with her failing to chase down the thief. Hopefully, spurred on by reacquiring the artifact and interested in the reason for its theft, we’ll get a more engaged Lara over the remainder of the season.
