Entertainment Corner: TOMB RAIDER Review; Naka-Kon 2018 Recap, and more.

“Death is not an adventure, Lara.”

This past weekend saw the release of the long-gestating reboot TOMB RAIDER which marks Lara Croft’s first adventure on the big screen since 2003’s THE CRADLE OF LIFE where Angelina Jolie picked up Lara’s dual guns for the last time and the franchise was quietly retired.This latest version of the character has Oscar-winner Alicia Vikander as a much more physical, brutal, and intimidating version of the badass explorer.

She is directed by Norwegian film-maker Roar Uthaug and supported by Daniel Wu, Walton Goggins, and Dominic West.TOMB RAIDER finds Lara Croft as a wayward adult running from the fact her father, famed archeologist Richard Croft (West), is all but dead. She’s running odd-jobs and struggling to stay afloat when she’s presented a chance to find her father’s whereabouts by discovering a secret room he had built in the family crypt. Its there she discovers her father went missing in search of an island called Yamati in the sea around Japan where he needed to find a mysterious cursed grave of the “evil queen” Himiko before a shadowy rival organization known only as Trinity could reach it and unlock it’s dangerous powers for their own twisted agenda.

Lara enlists the help of sailor Lu Ren (Wu) and once crashing on Yamati they find themselves in the grasp of a mad-man named Mathias Vogel (Goggins) who is hell bent on finishing Trinity’s work so he can go home.The film is great popcorn adventure that leaves you satisfied and, yet, hungry for more. It’s an “origin story” film in every sense of the word, and it’s the kind that promises a much more exciting second outing from Ms. Croft. I feel like the major take-away here was Vikander, who plays Croft with such a stirring mixture of bravery, compassion, anguish, and drive. Physically, she’s a beast of a woman who you can fully believe is climbing wrecked airplanes and scaling walls or leaping over deadly traps. Vikander trained hard and her effort shows, making her easily the most physically believable action heroine on screen in a long damn time. The good news is that TOMB RAIDER was made on a meager (but still large) $90 million budget, and that while it had a less than $30 mil debut it has racked up $126 million overseas already, meaning this probably won’t be the last we see of Lara.

Moving on, I know the hype has already came and went, but I finally watched Guillermo del Toro’s Oscar-winning THE SHAPE OF WATER which swept the Academy Awards earlier this month, and I must say it was a beautifully done little fantasy picture that I thought was aesthetically pleasing as well as emotionally stirring. It’s a weird little movie that doesn’t necessarily have the smoothest political voice it could, but I actually liked -maybe loved- it. It might have been my vulnerable emotional state the night I watched it (and the night after, when I watched it again) but damn if it doesn't pull at the heart. ...and it went along with one of the strangest double features I’ve been a part of, because I followed that with THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG, Disney’s 2009 musical, which was charming and had a rich flavor to it with some catchy musical numbers and served as a reminder of why Disney desperately needs to bring back their hand-drawn animation over 3D works like they have been.

The film follows the story of the plucky Tiana in New Orleans who becomes embroiled in a sinister plot by a dark magician attempting to sabotage a young Prince's engagement. What was nice about the film is that Tiana was an unconventional "Princess" in the sense that she has almost nothing to do with the film's main storyline before she becomes involved in it. It's a nice variation of "anyone can become something great" which was, ironically, echoed later in the two new STAR WARS films with the character Rey. 

Also this weekend was the Naka-Kon Anime Convention in Overland Park, Kansas that the Blackwell Journal-Tribune got press access to. I’ve attached several photos, go check them out! The convention was packed as always, and was a three-day experience where Japanese culture and animation come to the Midwest. It's such a special kind of place, because I was specifically two very non-Japanese characters with General Hux (Star Wars) and Red X (Teen Titans) and I got compliments on both.

There's a feeling unlike any other, going to a convention like that...about walking shoulder to shoulder in a sea of people that maybe for the one weekend in an entire year can really "be themselves" (for better or worse?)...it's a feeling that can really only be found at places like Naka. Of course there was the dancing, the panels, the cosplay workshops, fully furnished game room, sweeping and massive vendor space filled with everything from chainmail to art, to Reptar cereal to mugs, to statuettes and imported toys to novelty t-shirts and candy. 

Naka was held at the Overland Park Convention Center which is attached to the Sheraton Hotel, the hotel itself was even in on the fun. The restaurant and bar had a cute menu of speciality drinks that were served for the convention at a reasonable price such as Linktini's, Princess Peach Bombers, and Japanese beers. In 2015 the convention attendance was nearly 8,800 and I would wager this year the attendance had broke 11 thousand easily. The guests included Steve Blum, Sean Chiplock, Roland Kelts, and several other features including musical talents and Japanese culture gurus.

Naka-Kon stands as one of the larger convention destinations in the Texas-Kansas-Oklahoma-Nebraska corridor and is something that has to be experienced first hand. Our next stop for the BJT will likely be Tokyo in Tulsa or Anime Festival Wichita this summer…but I don’t know which! Any suggestions? TomR