Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life (2003)

Wonderful character development!

ridiculous rating

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

The film will not exactly win any awards for the screenplay or acting, but it is nevertheless entertaining enough with a blend of wonderful action and adventure. More realistic than the first installment with awesome scenery. The film is unfortunately way too silly at times as they try to recreate the wittiness of the first film but it simply falls flat. I must admit, as stupid as the scene was where Lara Croft punches a Great White on the nose, it had me crying with laughter (at just how silly it was!) The film does become wonderfully creepy towards the end, compensating for the silly humor earlier in the film.

Whoever said "Angelina Jolie IS Lara Croft" should simply delete that review and stick to video games rather than movie reviews. Because Angelina Jolie pretty much used those movies to show off her body and make morons think she's invincible. Alicia Vikander is so much better in the role. Not to mention the whole 2018 recreate blows the original out of the water. It's actually a movie you can watch without shaking your head every thirty seconds. She rides a bicycle. Shes not a show off with all her ridiculous modes of fantasy transportation.

Adaptation is one of the hardest things to do, regardless of the mediums that you are dealing with. Trying to make a book into a movie is hard, trying to make a remake of a movie already done (especially when done well) is terribly difficult, and so far making a video game into a movie has been nearly impossible.When I saw the first TOMB RAIDER movie, I enjoyed the popcorn, but fell off the train, so to speak, once we reached the scene involving the stone statues. Because up until that point, all we had was very entertaining action fare. Angelina was amusing, her comrades were entertaining, the threat against her was legitimate (as long as we're talking about the actual gunmen. If we're talking about the heavy, Manfred Powell, rotten soup noodles are more intimidating). But once you start throwing living statues that have no reason to be alive, you know you've crossed over into video game territory, and getting back from there is a shaky prospect indeed.So I didn't love the original TOMB RAIDER. Fun popcorn, good soundtrack. Terribly weak bad-guy. Meh.I've heard that those that loved the video games were quite pleased with it, said that the movie followed the games well. Can't speak to it, myself, because I haven't played any Tomb Raider game. Not yet, anyway.All that aside, I LOVED this movie. Angelina's portrayal of Lara got boosted several notches, in performance, accent, charm, and character. Gerard Butler adds to the plot as Terry Sheridan, giving Jolie something to play with as she goes about her business. Ciaran Hinds plays Jonathan Reiss, a cold and cruel disease-wielder who happily dispatches as he pleases with his nasty little bugs, complete with a superiority complex to match. The butler and computer expert are back (sadly not in as much of the scenery as before, but nobody's perfect).We've got top-notch action, we have lethality in the combat this time, we have the strange side-game of cat-and-mouse between Terry and Lara, and we have a heavy that Lara deserves. The cheesiness is left for the final act, with hulking black creatures made of not terribly bad CGI trying to guard the treasure they seek. Not bad, all in all.It's amazing to me that certain movies can have deal-breakers so large that it crashes the entire movie for a general audience, and in other cases terribly impossible action can pass without anyone caring. In FAST AND THE FURIOUS movies, no action is impossible. Anything goes. Nothing is a deal-breaker.In this movie, everybody flipped out because Lara punches a shark. Silly, yes. Over-the-top, perhaps. A deal-breaker? NO. I've seen worse. Living statues that come to life to kill everyone in the chamber AFTER you've already lifted the final treasure comes to mind. I mean seriously, after the battle, are they supposed to REPLACE the fragment somehow? Or does it just sit on the floor in the middle of the room as their partially damaged bodies go back to sitting in the corners, waiting for the next sucker to come on in and pick up a broken triangle? Seriously, guys, LET THE SHARK THING GO. Swallow it, and move on.But finally, the thing that really gets me surrounding all of the hate of this movie is something that has stuck with me for years. The first Tomb Raider movie was a success. Enough of one for Hollywood to make this film. The first movie was passable as a theatrical experience. It felt like the reenactment of a video game, which is, I guess, what it was supposed to do.THIS movie, however, felt like a movie. An Indiana Jones-type deal, complete with heroic protagonist, silly setup, great villain, awesome music, and overall fun ride. No video game-related material ANYWHERE.And that, apparently, was the problem for everyone that didn't like it.So the first movie is a pass, where it's essentially medium-rate popcorn that felt like a video game. The second is an actual solid movie that felt nothing like a video game. What the public wants, apparently, is to watch a movie about a video game they've already played. They do not want original stories involving the characters of those video games. They want to go from an interactive experience where they feel like they are shooting the guns, killing the bad-guys, and finding the treasure to… Watching somebody re-do it all on a giant screen.I think this is why we may never, ever see a successful hit movie based on a video game that actually satisfies on every level. People want things that aren't real. It's like criticizing THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy because it didn't cover enough of the book.Jesus, guys. What the hell do you really want, anyway?

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003): Dir: Jan De Bont / Cast: Angelina Jolie, Gerard Butler, Noah Taylor, Ciaran Hinds, Djimon Hounsou: About as much fun as being thrown down a flight of stairs and landing in a huge pile of nails. What is the cradle of life? It sounds like an episode of Rugrats. This is yet another Hollywood excuse to show off special effects while intelligence is neglected. Laura Croft kicks the crap out of villains in search for an orb and Pandora's Box. It winds down to Croft being sent on a mission and beating people up…and beating up more people…and beating up even more people. It all ends when there is no one left to beat up. She decides to surprise us and shoot her last victim. One of Jan De Bont's worst films and that is quite the achievement to create something that is even worse than Speed 2: Cruise Control. He also directed the original Speed as well as the remake of The Haunting. Angelina Jolie is reciting something that wasn't good the first time around, let alone worthy of a sequel. She looks the part but acting is far from her biggest concern with this film. The production values rapidly become the entire film and replace the actors as the film's real star. Gerard Butler, Ciaran Hinds, Djimon Hounsou, and Noah Taylor appear in what amounts to nothing. Pointless encore of stupidity that should crushed in a vise. Score: 1 / 10