10,000 BC
March 20th, 2008, 1:41 pm · Post a Comment · posted by Charlton Wiggins
10,000 BC, The latest blockbuster attempt from director Roland Emmerich (The Day After Tomorrow, Independence Day), takes you back to a time before recorded history, a time when mammoths, sabre-toothed tigers and giant ostrich-like birds inhabited earth. It is a time when the great civilizations of Africa are in their infancy, a time when the isolation of different tribes of people are succumbing to curiosity and exploration. With a cast of unknowns 10,000 BC director Emmerich has created a film about an era that has largely gone ignored by Hollywood and has done so in excellent fashion.
Steven Strait is D’Leh, a young man whose people, including his woman Evolet (Camilla Belle) have been carried off into captivity by the “four-legged beasts” (men on horses). D’Leh and three other hunters who have survived the attack set off across the snow-capped mountains and enter a world they never new existed. From lush verdant jungle to the arid sand-swept desert the hunters encounter danger and discover new allies as they chase the marauders who have captured their people. Belle’s presence in the movie is mainly as eye-candy, but Strait’s performance as the angst riven D’Leh is engaging and gives promise of a stellar future on screen.
The plot may be cliched from a hundred western films, but the setting of pre-history gives it new life. The CGI mammoths are spectacular to watch as they stampede but the sabre-toothed tiger is disappointing. It looks flat and two-dimensional as though it were cut and pasted into the film. Never-the-less, 10,000 BC is an intriguing film with wonderful action and a fresh setting for a movie.
—–
