Max Wonnacott from Orpington reviews Roland Emmerich's latest film 10,000BC
Director Roland Emmerich certainly has a deft hand in the art of big budget, big everything, blockbusters.
Box-office hits such as Independence Day and Godzilla have succeeded in telling grand stories on a personal level.
However, this latest prehistoric fantasy fails to deliver either an engaging story or engaging characters and, for all it's spectacular CGI and exotic settings, it fails to deliver the feeling of enormity its title demands.
It's unfortunate a film where everybody wears similar Neolithic furs should feature a largely unknown cast, for it takes a considerable amount of time to work out who is who.
10,000BC fails to deliver the feeling of enormity its title demands.
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The basic story revolves around the lives of a society of hunter gatherers, one of whom is a chosen one destined to save his people from enslavement by a cruel society who worship a man they believe to be a living god.
The trouble is there is not much which is epic in this rather basic storyline, although peppering the landscape with a few mammoths and the odd sabre tooth tiger serve as an unconvincing attempt to prove otherwise.
Emmerich does not allow special effects to get in the way of the narrative.
Nevertheless, the film is welcome in bringing old fashioned action to the big screen in an original way (after all we haven't seen prehistoric capers since the days of Raquel Welch).
Plus Emmerich does not allow special effects to get in the way of the narrative, which takes us from the bitter cold mountains of Europe to the beating plains of Africa. The performances are adequate for this sort of thing without becoming camp or over the top.
10,000BC is very much an Apocalypto for people who don't like either subtitles or theological complexity. While watching it there was little specifically to complain about, but its impact doesn't linger in the mind afterwards.
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