Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow can mop the floor with almost any number of armed and trained adversaries without breaking a sweat, but when Lara squares off against male antagonists she’s generally the underdog. In some ways the action is a little more realistic than in many action movies. Jolie’s Lara was perhaps having too much fun for much sense of urgency, but Vikander’s Lara isn’t really having fun at all, which makes it hard for the audience to have much fun either. Uthaug and cinematographer George Richmond film her pretty much the same way a male action hero would be shot, demonstrating that not objectifying an action heroine isn’t solely the purview of female filmmakers like Wonder Woman’s Patty Jenkins.Īs regards the intensity of the action, though, Vikander’s performance seems like an overcorrection. She now wears sensible cargo pants, and the familiar tank top doesn’t seem exploitative without the padding Jolie wore. Times have changed for both video games and movies, and Vikander’s character isn’t hypersexualized or really sexualized at all. In some ways her character was less an Indy knockoff than a James Bond parody, though as played by Jolie in tight short shorts and catsuits she was as much Bond Girl as 007 - an empowered action heroine who was also, much like the game avatar, fantasy eye candy for male fans. For all the grimacing and aching, weary movements he adopts in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Ford wears the role lightly.Īngelina Jolie, in her two outings in 20, played Lara as a fearless, invulnerable cartoon action figure who nailed every shot and stuck every landing without fail. Likewise does Harrison Ford in the Indiana Jones movies - not only the granddaddy of all movies of this type, but apparently the original inspiration for Lara Croft (first conceived as a male character with a whip and hat). As hard as Hunt works to save the world, what draws us in is how hard Cruise works to entertain us. But the audience winces and laughs at the same time. Ethan Hunt can and does get hurt, which lends urgency and suspense to the action sequences. What makes the last couple of Mission: Impossible movies in particular work so well is that they’re fundamentally larks structured around well-crafted action set pieces. Angelina Jolie, in her two outings in 20, played Lara as a fearless, invulnerable cartoon action figure who nailed every shot and stuck every landing without fail.
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