Alicia Vikander is body-shamed over 'Tomb Raider' — and the internet is fighting back

Alicia Vikander steps into the spelunking shoes of famous video-game heroine Lara Croft when Tomb Raider opens this weekend. A reboot that’s divorced from the character’s two prior big-screen outings — 2001’s Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and 2003’s Lara Croft Tomb Raider — The Cradle of Life, both of which starred Angelina Jolie in the role — the film will seek to establish the Oscar winner as a viable action star. On the eve of its domestic release, however, it has come under sexist attack, and the internet is most definitely not letting it slide.

Last weekend, Twitter user “Amazing Atheist Guy” (real name TJ Kirk) posted the following denigrating — and NSFW — comment about Vikander’s physical suitability for the role of the (traditionally buxom) Croft:

Following that ugliness, Philly Voice critic Jerome Maida then included the following passage in his review of the film — which, apparently, has since been deleted from the piece (likely because of online objections).

There’s no doubt that Vikander’s embodiment of Croft is less cartoonishly busty than the one found in the original video games. On The Graham Norton Show last month, the actress, who packed on 12 pounds of muscle for the role, admitted that one of the main differences between her version of the character and her predecessors’ is that, “My breasts are not as pointy as the first Lara!” Nonetheless, her Tomb Raider look is hardly out of sync with Lara’s game counterparts because she very closely resembles the more athletic, and less exaggerated, Croft found in the 2013 reboot series. And regardless, such criticisms — which are in line with the complaints that met Gal Gadot’s casting as Wonder Woman — reek of outright misogynistic body-shaming, and were thus greeted with heated responses from fans online:

Tomb Raider blasts into theaters tomorrow, March 16.

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:

• How Alicia Vikander put on 12 pounds of muscle for ‘Tomb Raider’ transformation

• ‘Tomb Raider’ trailer: Alicia Vikander (and Destiny’s Child) makes us forget all about Angelina Jolie’s Lara Croft

• As ‘Tomb Raider’ Turns 20, Let’s Look at Lara Croft Through the Years