Lara Croft may be fictional but Alicia Vikander's photoshopped neck is just not okay

When Warner Bros. recently released the official poster for the latest Tomb Raider film starring Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft the internet raised a few concerns about what seemed to be a rather awkward pose.

But it isn't the pose that's awkward. It's that Vikander's neck has been digitally elongated and looks unrealistic.

Buzzfeed shared some of the reactions to the poster. Some Twitter users found the poster memeworthy, others were disappointed and some even fixed it!

We wondered if it wasn't a Tomb Raider poster convention. If we look closer at Angelina Jolie's tenure as the badass archeologist, it's pretty clear that the image editor was also having a field day, but with the size of her breasts.

One comment about Vikander's poster seemed to hit the nail on the head and has to date been retweeted more than 12 000 times. "No, can you make sure we can see her face AND her ass?".

Does a movie's success always have to rely on satisfying the male gaze?

Read more: The real reason why men police our looks

Beyond the ridiculous pose and changes, what about the psychological and financial impact on women?

Cosmetic surgeons continue to make a killing from patients who are chasing 'perfection'. Our bodies aren't perfect as they are, necks not long enough, breasts not perky or big enough, skin with too many imperfections.

We're even seeing this play out more and more on social media with photo editing apps such as Facetune and her other deceptive cousins. On these apps you can get the flawless skin you've always wanted, whiter teeth and even a sharper nose if you so desire.

And I'm not shaming anyone who uses them because you're obviously allowed to have full creative agency over your own pictures.

Read: I age-shamed Kylie Jenner for her alleged pregnancy

The only problem is when people who have platforms to do better, don't use the opportunity to say "hey, my skin breaks out too sometimes, I'm actually a B-cup not a DD, or I have cellulite actually."

Instead, they don't speak up when various publications over-edit their images or make them pose in ways which create the illusion of impossibly svelte figures.

One such example is when curvy model Ashley Graham, posed among slender models, had to rest her hand on her thigh on the 'diversity' cover of the March issue of Vogue US while the rest of the cover faces had their hands on each other's waists. Ashley is indeed a body positive celebrity, but it seems the jury is still out on whether the intention was in fact for her to camouflage her thighs or not.

You'd think by now that the entertainment/fashion/beauty industry would be more cognisant of their power, especially when it comes to the representation of young women, but alas. 

Here's how South African tweeters responded to the new Lara Croft trailer and the new actress playing the character: