In 2001, the UK education system was still reeling from Thatcher’s Section 28, so trying to understand my attraction to men while having no precedent for it was confusing. I wanted to devastate them with witty comebacks, rather than the eerie muteness of a silent movie star. This is how I wanted to be when faced with bullies at school who saw my queerness as a weakness to exploit. Jolie’s Lara is unrelenting in her sarcastic remarks, particularly to her skivvy Bryce (Noah Taylor), and her sense of humour never wavers, not even in the face of mortal danger. The knowing looks, the cutting banter – the sheer camp audacity of it all – are what made the film resonate with me. What’s even more strange about this comment is that, in hindsight, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider seems to know exactly how ridiculous it is. This struck me as an odd thing to say because that’s precisely what the finished product – and particularly her performance – is. It sees Angelina Jolie, without a hint of irony, telling viewers that she didn’t wanted to make something “cartoony, stupid or camp”. There’s a ‘Digging into Tomb Raider’ featurette on the original DVD release that’s lodged in my memory. When you experience a daily ritual of mental and physical abuse, as many young LGBTQ+ people do, watching powerful women like Lara Croft taking zero crap, opposing the patriarchy, and running around with a big clock in her hand, makes it more bearable. While the film didn’t coincide with my personal coming out, it is very much a part of my formative queer years – on a par with seeing Ryan Phillipe’s rippling physique in 1999’s Cruel Intentions and wanting to be a bad ass bitch like Sarah Michelle Gellar. But for a queer 14-year-old living in the north of England, it was the most thrilling, empowering spectacle I had ever seen. Upon its initial release in 2001, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider was slated by critics and fans alike for its apparent lack of thrills. What’s still not regarded as cool, however, is the game’s first Hollywood outing. Today, Tomb Raider has a new legion of fans and seems – dare I say it – cool all over again. Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, the Tomb Raider franchise was reinvented in 20 when it went all serious and explored heroine Lara Croft’s bleak origins in both video game and film prequels.
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