Tag: TV

‘Tomb Raider’ the Next Big Adaptation?

Pheobe Waller-Bridge is reportedly writing and producing a TV Series based on Tomb Raider. Here’s why it could be great.

If you don’t know the name Pheobe Waller-Bridge, you haven’t seen Fleabag. This is one of the greatest shows ever, and based off her one woman show. You should see it. Fleabag is what made her a success and rightfully so. Since then she has had her foot in the Action genre and bringing her sharp wit sensibilities. She created the show Killing Eve which was a critical darling in the years she was writing for it. Then writing last year’s No Time to Die to help sunset Daniel Craig’s James Bond. This year she will be playing Indiana Jones’ goddaughter, a pivotal part in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Most recently she has left the Mr and Mrs Smith project over creative differences, meaning she knows when to leave a project. So fairly quickly she has become an action aficionado with all these recent projects.

Tomb Raider has had success on the big screen before with Angelina Jolie for two films, which were terribly mediocre and only made popular by Jolie herself. In 2018 Tomb Raider was rebooted with Alicia Vikander, with a plot revolving around the current series of Tomb Raider games. The reboot was made for more modest budget, and a sequel was in the works before being canceled last year. Now with Amazon holding the rights and Phoebe Waller-Bridge at the helm we should see not only a good adaptation, perhaps maybe a great one.

Tomb Raider is going to be an interesting adaptation. There may be many games, although the material worth mining it for adaption seems to be minimal. Hopefully Pheobe can crack the story. I would almost think Alias would be a good show to look at when adapting this and seeing how well they did their mythology episodes.

What do you think about another Tomb Raider adaptation?

Robert Ring

The Last of Us – TV Show

A story now not only for gamers, but for people from all walks of life.

The Last of Us originated as a game from 2013, while it was not ahead of its time it set a new benchmark in narrative storytelling for gaming. Ten years later and the story is more fitting today than it was back then. The story starts off with an interview from 1968 with a scientist talking about how he believes fungi is potentially much more worse than a virus or flu if there was to ever be a pandemic. The story then cuts to the day of the outbreak in 2003. Joel (Pedro Pascal), brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna) and Joel’s daughter Sarah (Nico Parker), experience their last normal day letting us get a glimpse into their life. The day unfolds with things happening in the background that show things are not right, much like how Shaun of the Dead reveals the zombies to the audience unbeknownst to protagonist Shaun. Once nightfall hits everyone is consumed by the chaos. Joel, Tommy, and Sarah leave their homes immediately for an escape as they experience the terror of this “zombie” outbreak. Not everyone survives the night as (Redacted) dies in a shocking scene that is also a revelation of how gone society is.

Twenty years later and we’re in 2023. The world didn’t recover, it’s barely surviving. The government is corrupt, and fighting with a resistance group called the Fireflies. Joel is changed, his humour is gone, and his occupation is smuggling. Between the infighting Joel has made a steady living for government rations. After a smuggling deal goes wrong Joel finds himself forced to smuggle the young girl Ellie (Bella Ramsey) for the Fireflies to another town. The episode ends with another reveal that will answer what Ellie’s importance is to the Fireflies. This is just the beginning of the journey and what an adventure it will be.

HBO did a phenomenal job at recreating the world seen in the original game. Unlike The Walking Dead the tone is near perfect. They didn’t artificially colourise the show to look gritty or dull. One of the beauties of The Last of Us is the beautiful new growth that has come out through all the cracks and crevices. The characters of Joel, and Sarah were given more characteristics. We see Joel is a hard worker trying to support his daughter by pulling double shifts. I like the way we get into Sarah’s psyche, she’s having a mental breakdown as we all probably would after seeing the world falling apart in an instant. The beginning prelude was a daring scene to start off with because if it felt the slightest bit campy you’ve made the world building feel campy. Surprisingly it worked to sell the realism, by subtitling hinting it was global warming that led to the fungi evolving to the outbreak. The thing that surprised me the most was how much I enjoyed watching the parts that weren’t in the game, in fact I rather them for the new experiences to the world I love so much.

Overall, The Last of Us is in good hands. Knowing where the story goes is one thing, however seeing what they do to expand the story is going to be the fun part.

For my review of The Last of Us: Part 1 click HERE

Robert Ring