FILM OF THE WEEK

Tomb Raider (Cert 12, 118 mins, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, Action/Adventure, available from July 9 on Amazon Video/BT TV Store/iTunes/Sky Store/TalkTalk TV Store and other download and streaming services, available from July 16 on DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £26.99/3D Blu-ray £29.99/4K Ultra HD Blu-ray £34.99)

Starring: Alicia Vikander, Daniel Wu, Walton Goggins, Dominic West, Kristin Scott Thomas, Nick Frost, Jaime Winstone.

Entrepreneur Lord Richard Croft (Dominic West) leads a secret double life as a globe-trotting protector of hidden ancient artefacts.

He vanishes during an expedition to the burial tomb of Japanese empress Himiko.

Seven years pass and Lord Croft's daughter Lara (Alicia Vikander) refuses to sign papers declaring him dead or take up the reins of her father's business empire alongside trusted business partner, Ana Miller (Kristin Scott Thomas).

Haunted by the past, Lara travels to Hong Kong to charter a boat captained by Lu Ren (Daniel Wu), whose father vanished with Lord Croft making the treacherous journey to an uninhabited island in the Devil's Sea.

Lara subsequently clashes with sadistic archaeologist Mathias Vogel (Walton Goggins) and exposes an ancient militant organisation called Trinity, which seeks control of supernatural antiquities.

Tomb Raider is a lithe thrill ride that significantly improves on Angelina Jolie's lamentable tours of duty as Lara Croft at the turn of the century.

Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Alastair Siddons's script is reverse-engineered from a spectacular slam-bang finale, which permits Lara to delve into her bag of daredevil tricks: Clambering, sprinting and somersaulting around a booby trap-laden temple as architecturally unsound floors and ceilings give way around her.

The dramatic calm before this special-effects laden storm is a surprisingly pedestrian affair, punctuated by tension-sapping flashbacks as well as historical hokum and secret society shenanigans worthy of The Da Vinci Code.

Swedish Oscar winner Vikander imbues her acrobatic globe-trotter with tortured melancholy.

Action sequences pilfer design elements from Jurassic Park and Wanted but are slickly executed by director Roar Uthaug.

Rating: ***