Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life
Metascore
43 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 34 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 34
  2. Mixed: 23 out of 34
  3. Negative: 7 out of 34
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  1. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    75
    In a summer where the special effects in movies have grown steadily more repetitive and dreary, "LCTR:TCOL" uses imagination and exciting locations to give the movie the same kind of pulp adventure feeling we get from the Indiana Jones movies.
  2. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    70
    A surprise and a not-so-guilty pleasure.
    All this critic's reviews
  3. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    63
    Somewhat fleeter and more engaging than its predecessor.
  4. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Michael Sragow
    63
    Angelina Jolie focuses her wild energy into outlandish heroics, and emerges with more attractiveness and credibility than all three of those silly Charlie's Angels combined.
  5. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    60
    Enough goodwill has been built up in the early sections that most viewers will not take offense when the movie abandons its plot and characters.
  6. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    60
    However caricatured a vision of female empowerment, Lara Croft exercises an irresistible tug not just on the adolescent male imagination but the 12-year-old female imagination as well.
  7. Variety
    Reviewed by: David Rooney
    60
    Jolie is even hotter, faster and more commanding than last time around as the fearless heiress/adventuress, plus a little more human. The less welcome news is that most of the same shortcomings that cramped the first installment are still dogging the sequel, which delivers on action but dawdles through downtime.
  8. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    60
    This Indiana Jones knockoff goes down smoothly enough, and Jolie isn't bad at all, though every time she opened her mouth I expected Mick Jagger to come dancing down her tongue.
  9. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    58
    Croft is one humorless butt-kicker. Excavations in exotic lands have rarely looked so much like items on a to-do list.
  10. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    50
    Even sex can't save a film that produces instant narcolepsy.
  11. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Mark Caro
    50
    Superior to 2001's "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" in almost every way. It's better directed, more consistently acted, and its writing, while at times ridiculous, at least has a modicum of logic at its core. I still had to slap myself to stay awake.
  12. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Foreman
    50
    Its faults -- banal dialogue, ludicrous and uninspired plotting, dull but vicious fight scenes -- make you realize just how much the summer action movie has declined in the last few years.
  13. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    50
    A creditable genre entry, the rare action movie with a discernible story, an assured pace and a charismatic central character. It falls apart in the end.
  14. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    50
    Even though the special effects and action sequences are good, the monsters conjured up are rather humdrum.
  15. Premiere
    Reviewed by: Laine Ewen
    50
    If only the love story were a little more convincing, she might have saved the world and the movie.
  16. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Stephen Cole
    50
    Isn't nearly as much fun as the original. For one thing, Lara having a boyfriend wrecks everything.
  17. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    50
    Simply a series of set pieces designed to insure Angelina Jolie's status as action-babe pin-up.
  18. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Kevin Carr
    50
    Even in the final battle over life and death, the only injury she suffers is a slight scratch on the face. It’s too much like a video game.
  19. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    50
    Bombastic it may be, but it’s rarely boring, as was the first Tomb Raider. Keep your expectations in line with the source material and you may be pleasantly surprised.
  20. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: William Arnold
    50
    The movie is all action. But there's no pacing, no suspense and no vulnerability for the protagonist so it all soon gets numbingly tiresome.
  21. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Andrew O'Hehir
    50
    This is a highly enjoyable summer thrill ride with an action heroine who likes to be on top, literally and figuratively.
  22. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Nathan Rabin
    50
    Offers plenty of eye candy, if little else. Ultimately, the film is clearly superior to its predecessor, but that's mostly because the first Tomb Raider left so much room for improvement.
  23. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Dave Kehr
    50
    Emerges as just one more formulaic action film as the title character bounces around the globe in a deadly treasure hunt.
  24. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: David Ansen
    50
    It’s not half bad, with cool locations and a great stunt leap from the top of a Hong Kong high-rise.
  25. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Kim Morgan
    42
    Quite simply, the "Tomb Raider" series has been flat-out boring, even with the talented and fun Jolie -- who needs to take off those harnesses and get back to real movies. She deserves better.
  26. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Scott Foundas
    40
    With her bulging blue eyes, elaborately braided hair and slinky spandex costumes, she's an indelible icon of action-heroine chic, and, quite frankly, the films don't deserve her.
  27. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Gregory Weinkauf
    40
    Beneath its satisfactory chops this movie -- like Ms. Croft herself -- is stuffy and soulless.
  28. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Elizabeth Weitzman
    38
    Competent in the extreme, the talented Jolie would make a great Jane Bond. But mired in this joyless orgy of preposterousness, her biggest challenge is simply keeping a straight face.
  29. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    30
    If ever there was a movie fit for permanent entombment, it's this sequel.
  30. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Ann Hornaday
    30
    In a summer of surprisingly self-serious comic book movies" Lara Croft "stands out as being particularly humorless.
  31. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Rene Rodriguez
    25
    Another joyless, brain-numbing adventure through lackluster Indiana Jones territory.
  32. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    25
    Cradle of lifelessness.
  33. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    25
    The worst action movie of the summer. I liked Bad Boys II a little less, but making the comparison is like distinguishing between a cow turd and a horse turd. And that pretty much sums it up nicely.
  34. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Michael Atkinson
    0
    It wouldn't be fair to gripe about the hundreds of plot holes; the whole thing is hole.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
7.7 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 118 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 68 out of 85
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 85
  3. Negative: 12 out of 85
  1. grandpajoe6191
    3
    Man, why won't people know that game-adapted movies don't have the capacity to become equal as those from the pure brain? "The Cradle of Life" is a very appropriate example and solution for my statement. Its terrible, worse than the prequel. Avoid the movie and watch something alse.… Full Review »
  2. Thegodfatherson
    4
    But a movie has to be judged on its own merits, and Cradle of Life is executed in a sort of workman like fashion. It's a tad slow and overlong mainly because the plot is so thin, but the action sequences have their moments. It derails when the gang reaches the title Cradle of Life, where they encounter shadow demons and a realm where physics don't apply. The ending is lifted almost entirely from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, including the decision about what to do with Pandora's Box. And in the end, Lara Croft, just like the audience, doesn't really care what's happened, who's been hurt or if the world has been saved. It was just another day at the office for this video game heroine.… Full Review »
  3. MovieLonely94
    2
    also, a boring piece of crap
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