Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life Critic Reviews

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. Read the full review

A surprise and a not-so-guilty pleasure.Read the full review

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. Read the full review

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. Read the full review

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. Read the full review

Croft is one humorless butt-kicker. Excavations in exotic lands have rarely looked so much like items on a to-do list.Read the full review

Emerges as just one more formulaic action film as the title character bounces around the globe in a deadly treasure hunt. Read the full review

Even though the special effects and action sequences are good, the monsters conjured up are rather humdrum. Read the full review

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. Read the full review