10,000 B.C. Big Blunder
B.C. Movie of Thrills But Less Autenthicity
If you like worn out plots, weak characters and tedious telling, you may find 10,000 B.C. entertaining. Narrated by Omar Sharif, it has a simple storyline, with less emphasis on authenticity.
Director Roland Emmerich: It's no Independence Day
Packed with clichés and weak sub plots, Roland Emmerich’s latest movie is making very little impact among movie goers. Very little to distinguish from Day After Tomorrow . Maybe it would be better for him to stick with more sci-fi remakes, considering his great success with Independence Day.
The predictable plot fails to impress, no ah’s there. Except for a herd of stampeding mammoths, trampling everything in sight, there is not much to authenticate its connection to the year of its birth. Especially when the tribe, the protagonist belongs to speaks English, a time when English was not yet invented. Some of the characters' lines sounded misplaced in a dialogue that should be reflective of a prehistoric time.
Another of Emmerich’s oversights is in the casting of flawlessly beautiful women with sparkling white teeth, to act in a time where there were no make up or teeth whitening methods. While it is not grounded in reality, it is a has the makings of a solid film that offers nothing more than a small adrenaline rush.
Camilla Belle and Steven Strait Go Prehistoric
In the movie, the protagonist, Steven Strait, plays D’Leh, a young hunter from the Yagahl tribe. He falls in love with Evolet (Camilla Belle) a tribeswoman. One day a band of mysterious warlords, raid the village and kidnap Evolet. D'Leh mounts a search for her, leading a small group of hunters to, what looks like the end of the world, in a short space of time; through tropical rain forests, cold snow packed mountains with treacherous terrain, vast grasslands and hot sandy deserts to rescue her from the warlords. The movie also offers the normal dose of mysticism and dead spirit communication synonymous with the era, in the form of the Old Mother, played by Mona Hammond.
Set in pre-historic times, history is not this movie's strong point. The introduction of a creature that is said to be a prehistoric ostrich crossed with a velociraptor is nothing short of ridiculous to behold. So are the giant dodos, the seemingly less aggressive saber-tooth tigers and the stampeding furry elephants.
In short, a thrill seeker or adventure lover may get his money’s worth going to see 10,000 B.C., but for the serious movie buff, it would be less painful looking at reruns of Apocalypto or One Million Years B. C.
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