Film

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life

Lara Croft returns in a globe-trotting adventure that cranks the spectacle to eleven. Jolie gets to be athletic, funny, and genuinely charismatic—less a video game adaptation, more a summer blockbuster that remembers action movies should be fun. Gadgets, betrayals, underwater tombs, and Gerard Butler being rakishly unreliable. If you want adventure without pretense, this delivers.

TMDb rating2.9

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want a loose, globe-trotting popcorn caper where the set pieces are the point and the banter between Jolie and Butler carries the rest.

Skip it if it is busy and cheerfully unserious, stuffed with quips and exposition, so if you need grounded stakes, its globe-hopping will grate.

What it asks of you: Expect roughly two hours of steady set pieces with little time spent lingering; you can switch off for stretches and still follow along.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

National Treasure2004

Nicolas Cage hunting historical MacGuffins with a team of lovable experts. Same DNA as Tomb Raider—puzzle-box plotting, globe-trotting action, and a genuine warmth that makes you root for everyone. Chaotic and earnest in the best way.

But The puzzle-solving often stops the action cold, and if you need tension over fun, the film's determined cheerfulness will feel thin.

National Treasure poster

The Mummy1999

Brendan Fraser as an adventurer with charm to burn, opposite Rachel Weisz as a librarian who can hold her own. It's got the same energy—action, humour, genuine thrills, and a romance you actually care about. The template Tomb Raider follows.

But The CGI has aged more harshly than you might expect, and the pacing occasionally feels bloated for what is essentially a fun romp.

The Mummy poster

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl2003

Released the same year. Depp steals scenes, but what matters is the film understands that adventure blockbusters need wit and personality, not just spectacle. The same DNA—treasure, betrayal, the world as playground.

But If pirate movies bore you, nothing here will change your mind. It's committed to its own chaos in ways that won't convert the skeptical.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - The Cradle of Life

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Resident Evil2002

Same template: a capable woman, ancient secrets, underground tombs, action sequences prioritizing spectacle over logic. Tomb Raider is the champagne version; this is the energy drink.

One year before Tomb Raider, Paul W.S. Anderson made an action film about an athletic woman in a tank top exploring an ancient underground facility, solving puzzles, and fighting creatures. It's sci-fi instead of archaeology, but the shape is identical—and more visceral. The connection is structural DNA: both films transplant adventure tropes into a B-movie register.

But It's deliberately trashy in ways Tomb Raider softens. If you want your action movies polished and glamorous, this grime will feel like a step down.

Resident Evil poster
More like this (8)

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull2008

Another archaeologist hunting myths across deserts and temples. It's uneven, but the best moments have that same sense of 'what's around the next corner?' that makes Tomb Raider tick—adventure for its own sake, not bogged down in mythology lectures.

But The film often feels confused about its own tone, and some choices aged badly. It's a worthy effort that doesn't always land.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull poster

Uncharted2022

Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg hunt a pirate treasure. Lighter on its feet than you'd expect. It borrows liberally from the adventure-movie playbook Tomb Raider helped write, and it knows when to stop taking itself seriously.

But It's essentially a video game movie that forgot to be a video game movie. For some, that's a feature; for others, a betrayal.

Uncharted poster

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island2012

Dwayne Johnson and Josh Hutcherson hunting for a legendary island. It's unpretentious fun, knows exactly what it is, and commits fully to the widescreen adventure. No irony, no apology, just spectacle.

But If you demand depth or narrative sophistication, this will feel like padding. It's all surface charm, and some find that exhausting.

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island poster

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor2008

Brendan Fraser again, this time in China pursuing an ancient curse. It's less polished than the first, but that scrappiness gives it personality. Same formula: action, family banter, stakes that never feel too real.

But The sequel fatigue shows. It rehashes the formula without finding new angles, and the charm stretches thin under repetition.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor poster

Sahara2005

Matthew McConaughey and Steve Zahn searching the Sahara for a Civil War ironclad. It's silly, energetic, and genuinely committed to making you smile. Adventure cinema at its most unpretentious, with action that doesn't pause to explain itself.

But The plot barely hangs together, and the tone is so light it occasionally feels like nothing matters. For some, that's a feature.

Sahara poster

Jungle Cruise2021

Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt up a river looking for myth. It tries to capture that Mummy magic—banter, period detail, action without cynicism. Has charm, and Johnson clearly enjoys playing a rogue.

But It borrows so openly from better films that it feels like a competent echo. Nothing here surprises, and competence only carries you so far.

Jungle Cruise poster

Encanto2021

Both films reject the modern blockbuster impulse to drain colour and personality in pursuit of 'maturity.' Encanto uses magic and family; Tomb Raider uses adventure and humour. Both argue that spectacle should make you smile, not just numb you.

A radically different register, but both are films built on a simple truth: you can have adventure, humour, genuine stakes, and colour all at once. It's a family musical about a magical house, but it shares Tomb Raider's DNA—a protagonist who doesn't fit the mould, an ensemble who matter, a world that feels genuinely fun to inhabit. Pure joy beneath the surface.

But If you need your entertainment to involve combat and danger rather than emotion and music, this will feel like it's for someone else. It is, but that doesn't make it wrong.

Encanto poster

Mr. & Mrs. Smith2005

Both films treat action and glamour as settings for character, not distractions from it. Jolie here is a different role—a partner rather than a solo player—but the same principle holds: action blockbusters don't need to be hollow.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (yes) as married assassins who don't know the other works for a rival agency. It's a romance film dressed as an action film. It has the same propulsive energy and globe-trotting glamour as Tomb Raider, but the real story is two people realizing they're attracted to each other mid-chaos. Stylish, witty, and genuinely fun in ways that feel almost illicit.

But The action stops frequently for character moments, which some find precious. If you want nonstop spectacle, the pauses for attraction will feel like delays.

Mr. & Mrs. Smith poster

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Cradle Will Rock, La Chinoise