Lara Croft is back, for better or worse, in “Tomb Raider” – a reboot of the early 2000s franchise that featured Angelina Jolie as the English archaeologist made popular in a 1996 video game.

This time it’s another best supporting actress, Alicia Vikander, in the role of Croft. And while she proves to be a slight improvement over Jolie’s rather cold performances, she can’t save an action movie that plods along at a snail’s pace.

“Tomb Raider” serves as an origin story for Croft, a 20-something free spirit who is trying to move past the mysterious disappearance of her father, Lord Richard Croft (Dominic West), by paving her own path as a bike courier.

Just when it seems like she is ready to come to terms that her father is dead, Croft discovers her father had a secret project: Trying to find the tomb of a woman believed to be a mythical queen capable of killing people with a single touch.

Against her father’s last wishes, Croft opts to set out to continue his work – only to discover a man named Mathias Vogel (Walton Goggins) is leading an expedition for a secret group known as Trinity that is eager to get the tomb and use the queen’s powers for their own gains.

I was not a fan of the first two “Tomb Raider” films released in 2001 and 2003 that featured Jolie, so this reboot wasn’t something I felt was necessary. But even fans of those earlier films, or the video games, might find this to be an excruciating endeavor – an action film where most of the action involves characters talking.

Vikander is fine with what she is given to work with – basically running and jumping in slow motion – but the script lacks a sense of humor that an action franchise like this sorely needs.

Goggins should have been a slam-dunk antagonist, but “Tomb Raider” manages to botch that as well – making him so one-dimensional that his heel factor is toned down drastically.

With so much exposition and back story, the action sequences in the back half almost feel like an afterthought – and mostly feel like something either recycled from “Raiders of the Lost Ark” or pulled directly from a video game (and, really, who wants to watch someone else play a video game?).

It all builds to an open-ended finale that promises more adventures for Croft. I think the studio should cut its losses and just pull the plug on this franchise. It’s clear there is nothing here to sustain one film, let alone a series of films.

Maybe the time and energy spent on a “Tomb Raider” franchise can be put to better work, like perhaps an adaptation of the old Atari game “Pitfall.”

It certainly couldn’t be much worse than this franchise.

Starring: Alicia Vikander, Walton Goggins

Directed by: Roar Uthaug

Rating: PG-13 for sequences of violence and action, and for some language

Playing at: Regal Greenwood Mall Stadium 10, Highland Cinemas (Glasgow)

Grade: C-