Tomb Raider Video Game (2013) and Film (2018), with Julie Levy

Explicit content warning

10/25/24 • 88 min

Movies We Dig | Film, Antiquity and Everything in Between

Your favorite Tomb Raider is back, and this time she taking a beating. With the help of archaeogaming specialist, Julie Levy, we take a look at the rebooted version of Lara Croft introduced in the 2010s. Considering the film is supposed to be based on the 2013 game, it is wild to see how drastically different the two mediums present Lara Croft's new origin story. Let's just say, we end up loving the game more than a film, even with its supernatural AND super-gorey elements. Will Lara ever put down her tomb raiding ways and become a real archaeologist? Probably not. But the franchise does allow us to consider the role myth-making plays in the field of archaeology, and it's problematic offshoot of pseudoarchaeology.

Speaking of, if you want to learn more about #RealArchaeology, be sure to check out all the new archaeology-related content be shared this weekend at real-archaeology.com! The site brings together a collective of online creators whose goal is to collaborate in creating, promoting, and sharing entertaining and educational media with the wider public on the wonders of our shared history.

Along with that, check out the Save Ancient Studies Alliance which likewise aims to break barriers to education about humanity’s diverse past in order to advance intercultural empathy, equity, and cooperation today.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) and The Cradle of Life (2003), with Marina Escolano-Poveda

As the old adage goes, "Well-behaved women seldom make history" and Tomb Raider takes that to a whole new level. Based on the popular late 90s action-adventure video games, Angelina Jolie plays the titular Lara Croft in these high-energy films released during the early 2000s. To help us unpack the early inspirations for this character and her initial film adaptations, we are joined by Egyptologist (and sometimes Lara Croft cosplayer), Dr. Marina Escolano-Povdeda. While these films definitely fail the Bechdel test, one must marvel at this cinematic world in which no one questions Lara's capabilities as a Tomb Raider. Even if she probably destroys more tombs than not, her importance as an icon for young girls and women who wanted to enter the male-dominated field of archaeology cannot be overstated. That's got to count for something, right?

If you are interested in learning more about #RealArchaeology and the people who do it, be sure to check out https://real-archaeology.com/index.html. And if you would like to learn more about Marina and her work, check out her Twitter and Instagram pages.

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Next Episode

Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft (2024)

In this episode we learn that your hosts do not know how to behave themselves without an awesome guest to keep them in line! That being said, Colin, Elijah, and Christie delve into the latest iteration of Tomb Raider from the new Netflix animated series. It has a fully realized Lara, beautiful animation, and a plot that actually requires the heroine to intervene in order to save the world. Yet it feels a little too late for it to make the same impact as Angelina Jolie's Tomb Raider. We unpack this, Netflix's unintelligible renewal method (this series was renewed for a second season), and weird franchises we'd all like talk drunkenly about one day.

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