Having played the Tomb Raider (2013) reboot game and its sequel Rise of the Tomb Raider, one thing I can say is that both embrace the supernatural. There's:
- soul transfer playing an important role in Tomb Raider;
- immortality and possibly undead soldiers in both Tomb Raider and Rise of the Tomb Raider.
However, Tomb Raider (2018) the movie, ostensibly based on the 2013 game (in that both happen on Yamatai, involve Queen Himiko and feature a young Lara starting out on her adventures), seems to be firmly grounded in reality: everything that could be supernatural is given a scientific explanation. This seems to be a drastic divergence from both the base games, and the Angelina Jolie movies (both of which involved supernatural elements).
Is it known why the movie went in this direction? Have the powers that be behind the movie or the games talked about this?
To clarify, I'm not interested in superficially supernatural elements in the game (like magically lighting torches, switching weapons out of thin air, etc.), but the supernatural elements in the story of the game. Queen Himiko's soul transfer, the Prophet's immortality and the Divine Source, the Oni and the Deathless Ones - these are all parts of the story, and their supernatural features have little to do with gameplay.