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Alpha (2018)
When I was a kid, I had a picture book called The First Dog, about the first wolf to bond with a prehistoric cave boy. Alpha is basically an uncredited adaptation of that movie, with the humans speaking a made-up primitive language. Sounds like a slam dunk, eh?
Unfortunately, the movie has two significant problems. First, there are completely unnecessary subtitles for the human dialogue - maybe these can be disabled on a Blu-ray, but I rented the flick from Amazon Prime, where subs were burned in. (They did look different from those seen on Blu-ray.com screencaps, though, so there's hope.) Secondly, and more significantly, the movie goes way over the top in terms of geography and action, with the human surviving impossible falls, and repeatedly building fires with no fuel in sight. Likewise, the scenery, while often beautiful, is far too varied to be believable, with comically exaggerated geographical features. At least they got the most important part right: the wolf is a real animal, and the bonding scenes are well-done.
Despite the decently intense (PG-13) action, this is probably best suited to more adventurous audiences in the 6-12 range, who are perhaps too young to mind the aforementioned excesses. If the Blu-ray doesn't offer a subtitle-free option, a fan edit would do well to create just that, as well as trim some of the more outlandish bits. Had the movie been more realistic, it could have been a classic. As is, it's pretty okay.
Grade (without subs): B
Grade (with subs): B-
When I was a kid, I had a picture book called The First Dog, about the first wolf to bond with a prehistoric cave boy. Alpha is basically an uncredited adaptation of that movie, with the humans speaking a made-up primitive language. Sounds like a slam dunk, eh?
Unfortunately, the movie has two significant problems. First, there are completely unnecessary subtitles for the human dialogue - maybe these can be disabled on a Blu-ray, but I rented the flick from Amazon Prime, where subs were burned in. (They did look different from those seen on Blu-ray.com screencaps, though, so there's hope.) Secondly, and more significantly, the movie goes way over the top in terms of geography and action, with the human surviving impossible falls, and repeatedly building fires with no fuel in sight. Likewise, the scenery, while often beautiful, is far too varied to be believable, with comically exaggerated geographical features. At least they got the most important part right: the wolf is a real animal, and the bonding scenes are well-done.
Despite the decently intense (PG-13) action, this is probably best suited to more adventurous audiences in the 6-12 range, who are perhaps too young to mind the aforementioned excesses. If the Blu-ray doesn't offer a subtitle-free option, a fan edit would do well to create just that, as well as trim some of the more outlandish bits. Had the movie been more realistic, it could have been a classic. As is, it's pretty okay.
Grade (without subs): B
Grade (with subs): B-