Alpha (PG.)
Directed by Albert Hughes.
Starring Kodi Smit-McPhee, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, Natassia Malthe, Leonor Varela, Jens Hultén, Mercedes de la Zerda. 96 mins.
After all the sequels and spin-offs, this prehistoric fight for survival tale is arguably - if you classify Skyscraper and The Meg as just depilated, supersized remakes - the summer's first big-budget original film. 20,000 year ago in Europe, the leader of a tribe (Jóhannesson from Game of Thrones) is blessed with a sensitive child (Smit-McPhee.) The chief is brave and strong; his son is soft but resourceful and will become the first human to domesticate a canine. The film has a similar rift – a harsh, gritty story of endurance, mixed with a soppy tale of a boy and his doggy woggy. (A wolf actually.) It's Lassie meets Quest For Fire.
Taken on a hunting trip to make a caveman of him, the boy is left for dead and has to find his way back to the tribe with the help of an injured wolf that he nurses back to health. The original hunting trip was a week away from their camp; the journey back sees the boy traverse half the planet across a landscape that merges CGI and exotic locations.
Director Hughes, formerly a Hughes Brother but now decoupled from his twin Allen, employs a busy visual style to create a kind of pre-apocalyptic wasteland full of starry skies, big moons, volcanic eruptions, glaciers and crane shots to reveal vast landscapes. The hyperactive visuals are supposed to distract from the slightly thin nature of the story but instead, they overwhelm it.
Directed by Albert Hughes.
Starring Kodi Smit-McPhee, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, Natassia Malthe, Leonor Varela, Jens Hultén, Mercedes de la Zerda. 96 mins.
After all the sequels and spin-offs, this prehistoric fight for survival tale is arguably - if you classify Skyscraper and The Meg as just depilated, supersized remakes - the summer's first big-budget original film. 20,000 year ago in Europe, the leader of a tribe (Jóhannesson from Game of Thrones) is blessed with a sensitive child (Smit-McPhee.) The chief is brave and strong; his son is soft but resourceful and will become the first human to domesticate a canine. The film has a similar rift – a harsh, gritty story of endurance, mixed with a soppy tale of a boy and his doggy woggy. (A wolf actually.) It's Lassie meets Quest For Fire.
Taken on a hunting trip to make a caveman of him, the boy is left for dead and has to find his way back to the tribe with the help of an injured wolf that he nurses back to health. The original hunting trip was a week away from their camp; the journey back sees the boy traverse half the planet across a landscape that merges CGI and exotic locations.
Director Hughes, formerly a Hughes Brother but now decoupled from his twin Allen, employs a busy visual style to create a kind of pre-apocalyptic wasteland full of starry skies, big moons, volcanic eruptions, glaciers and crane shots to reveal vast landscapes. The hyperactive visuals are supposed to distract from the slightly thin nature of the story but instead, they overwhelm it.
