Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life is the 2003 action adventure film directed by Jan de Bont based on the Tomb Raider video game series and is the sequel to Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) with Angelina Jolie reprising her role as the titular character. Two soundtrack albums were released in order to promote the film: an original soundtrack and an original score. The soundtrack album, titled Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) was released on July 22, 2003 by Hollywood and Warner Bros. Records, featuring songs heard in the film, while the second album, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life (Original Motion Picture Score) consisted of the original score composed by Alan Silvestri, which released on July 25, 2003 through Varèse Sarabande.

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Background The album is composed of alternative rock and electronic music, which includes Saliva's unreleased single "Time", a remix of Moby's "Jam for the Ladies" by Jason Nevins, and a remix of P.O.D.'s "Satellite". Other artists included Lunatic Calm, Alexandra Slate, Dandy Warhols, Crystal Method amongst others. Korn's song "Did My Time" was released as a single tying in to the film and featured during the end credits. However, it did not appear on the motion picture soundtrack,

Track listing

Reception Johnny Loftus of AllMusic wrote "Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life might appeal to the franchise's core audience, which has an appreciation for bombast. But its ballast is hard to ignore." Spence D. of IGN wrote "The main problem with this album is that much of the music is just so routine and in many cases uninspired. But then given the stilted nature of the source material (that would be the film), one shouldn't expect the artists involved to have crafted anything earth shattering. In the end, the music on Music From and Inspired By Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life more often than not fails to excite."

Chart performance Chart (2003)PeakpositionUK Soundtrack Albums (OCC)15US Billboard 200177US Top Soundtracks (Billboard)14

Accolades AwardCategoryRecipient(s)ResultBMI Film & TV Awards Most Performed Songs from Films Korn – "Did My Time"

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life (Original Motion Picture Score)

Background Alan Silvestri composed the film score, who replaced Craig Armstrong after the latter left the project due to creative differences. Silvestri incorporated Nathan McCree's compositions for the Tomb Raider video game series, for most of the film's music, while the climatic cue "Pandora's Box" being a fresh composition without any influences. Recorded at the Abbey Road Studios in London, It was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra.

The album was issued by Varèse Sarabande in 2003, which accompanies 15 cues running for an hour. The label then reissued the score in a two-disc deluxe edition, which included thirty minutes of unreleased musical tracks, including music from the film's "Lab Scene" composed by Armstrong, and Silvestri's previously unheard reinterpretation thereof.

Track listing

Reception Christian Clemmensen of Filmtracks said, "Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life is a serviceable and occasionally engaging action score, with some fantastic highlights at its conclusion." Anton Smit of Soundtrack World wrote "Alan Silvestri is able to come up with a short and extremely powerful theme, and then integrates it into the rest of the music, giving the whole musical package its identity, but he also keeps the music fresh and interesting during all kinds of scenes. The music provides emotion where needed or just support for the action sequences with musical patterns and melodies." Thomas Glorieux of Maintitles.net wrote "What can you expect of Tomb Raider 2 if you realize both movies had a rocky musical experience? It's at least a lot more enjoyable than the first one of Revell, but not as good as say his masterpiece The Mummy Returns. Tomb Raider 2 is an enjoyable score with sadly too many dead moments, making the score in fact too long for repeated experiences. We expect more of Silvestri, even in these circumstances. It would have been so cool having Silvestri on the POTC movies and [Mark] Mancina on this one."

In contrast, Jack Smith of BBC said "Unstructured, unoriginal and unmemorable, this is definitely closer to the grave than the cradle." James Southall of Movie Wave also added, "all in all, this is something of a disappointment. Given Silvestri's credentials I was expecting something a lot more vibrant and exciting. To be honest, even the best tracks (and there are a few that do impress) are still a little routine by his standards. The album does have one thing going for it though: numerous pictures of a scantily-clad Angelina Jolie. It is very tempting to give it five stars just for that. To be honest, sitting staring at them for an hour, who really cares what the music's like."

References