Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life (2003)
★★ — Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life (2003)
Jan de Bont, the Dutch director who had made a strong commercial impression with Speed (1994) and Twister (1996) before a run of diminishing returns with Speed 2: Cruise Control and The Haunting, took the reins here from Simon West, who directed the first Tomb Raider. The film was a co-production spread across five countries, shot on location in Greece, China, Kenya, and Hong Kong, with a $95 million budget reflecting Paramount's continued confidence in Angelina Jolie as a bankable action lead. Jolie, by this point a full-blown global star following her Oscar win for Girl, Interrupted and her first outing as Croft in 2001, is joined by a pre-fame Gerard Butler in a supporting role. The sequel arrived in the middle of a mid-2000s glut of video game adaptations riding the commercial momentum of the first film's modest theatrical success.
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider Cradle of Life (2003) is a sequel that manages to be worse than the original, less fun, less coherent, and stripped of even the minimal charm that made the first film a cheesy guilty pleasure. Angelina Jolie returns as Lara, still effortlessly cool, still flipping through ancient traps in skin-tight gear, but this time she’s chasing the mythical Pandora’s Box before a rogue mercenary (Gerard Butler, wasted in a forgettable villain role) can use it to unleash global chaos. The problem is it doubles down on everything that didn’t work the first time. The plot is even more ridiculous, globe-trotting from China to Africa to Greece with zero logic or momentum. The action scenes are louder, flashier, and somehow less exciting, drenched in CGI and shaky cam that makes half of them impossible to follow. And unlike the first film, there’s no sense of adventure, just Lara running from one poorly rendered set piece to the next. Even the campy fun is gone. Jon Voight returns as her eccentric father, but has nothing to do. Ciarán Hinds shows up as a shadowy official and vanishes. And the much-hyped chemistry with Will Yun Lee’s character goes nowhere. It feels rushed, soulless, and completely forgettable. Angelina Jolie still brings her A-game, committed to the bit even when the script clearly isn’t. As a blockbuster it's a failure. As a video game adaptation it's a step backward. As a time capsule of early-2000s excess it’s entertaining in how bad it is. But mostly, it’s just there, a relic best left buried.
Rating: ★★ | Year: 2003 | Watched: 2025-10-24
Where to watch (UK)
Rent: Rakuten TV
Buy: Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies · Sky Store
Physical: Amazon UK
Affiliate disclosure: Movies With Macca may earn a small commission on purchases or subscriptions started via these links. It costs you nothing extra.
Related on Movies With Macca
More with Angelina Jolie: Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011) · Kung Fu Panda (2008) · Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) · Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)
More from Germany: Lessons of Darkness (1992) · Cemetery Man (1994) · The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) · Resident Evil: Retribution (2012)
More from the 2000s: Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) · Daredevil (2003) · Apocalypto (2006)
More adventure: Alice in Wonderland (1951) · The Eagle (1925) · Louisiana Story (1948) · The General (1926)
More action: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · The General (1926) · Hand of Death (1976) · Daredevil (2003)
