CBC Television placed "Pure Shores" at number two in its ranking of the group's music videos, only not placing it at number one "since the video is used mostly as a promotional tool for The Beach", but praised "how the director reflects scenes from the movie with the girls". James Manning from "Time Out" noted that despite the lyric about deserts, "the shots of the band walking on a beach in the video were filmed on the North Norfolk coast". Lewis Corner of Digital Spy agreed, commenting that it was "just a shame that the video was shot on a chilly beach in Norfolk, instead of tropical Koh Phi Phi". BBC America's Kevin Wicks was more negative, calling it the "most unflattering girl group video ever". He continued, "Whose bright idea was it to light this video in nightvision, making four very pretty girls look like hopelessly dazed raccoons? Not a bad song at all, but dreadful video".